The Battle of Falam (also named "Mission Jerusalem"[citation needed]) was an offensive conducted by the Chin Brotherhood Alliance, along with other anti-junta resistance forces, to capture the Chin State town of Falam during the Myanmar civil war. The battle was reported to be the first major battle resulting in the capture of a town without on-the-ground participation from ethnic armed organizations established before the 2021 phase of the civil war.
| Battle of Falam | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Chin theater in the Myanmar civil war | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 State Administration Council |
Other Allied Groups:
| ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| ~400[3] | ~600[3] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Unknown 100+ captured[3] |
89 killed 500+ wounded[4] | ||||||||
Background
editFalam is the second-largest city in Chin State and a former state capital. It is strategically located on the route between the junta’s Regional Operations Command in Kale (Sagaing Region) and Hakha (Chin State).[5]
By late 2024, rebels claimed control of approximately 85% of Chin State, with Falam remaining one of the last junta strongholds in the region.[6]
Battle
editThe battle began on November 9, 2024[7] when the Chin Brotherhood Alliance, comprising the Zomi Federal Union, Chin National Organization, Mindat Chin National Council, Maraland and Kampelet Chin Defense Forces, and Matupi CDF Brigade 1, launched Operation Chin Brotherhood.[8]
The CNDF which is a component of the CBA is also engaged and is supported by allied resistance groups, including units reportedly assisted by the Arakan Army (AA) from Rakhine State.[9]
On November 9, CBA forces launched coordinated attacks on junta strongholds in Falam, targeting the police station, General Administration Department, Department of Construction, and Hospital Hill.[10] The rebels also blockaded supply routes to the town, effectively isolating Infantry Battalion 268. In response, the junta carried out heavy airstrikes, using warplanes, drones, and artillery to defend its positions.[11]
By mid-November, the CBA had taken control of the police station and administrative offices, leaving Battalion 268 as the last significant junta holdout.[11] Around 45 junta soldiers surrendered during this phase, and the rebels have captured approximately 130 prisoners of war since the offensive began.[12][7]
Residents reported that the junta’s air force dropped over 150 bombs on Falam on a single day (Saturday) in mid-November, targeting rebel positions and civilian areas. Over the course of a week, the total number of bombs dropped exceeded 500.[13] A Christian church in nearby Thalanzar village was damanged and over 10,000 residents were displaced to nearby villages, Kalay Township, Yangon, and India’s Mizoram state.[13]
By December 2024, the CBA claimed to have seized 90% of Falam Township,[8] with junta forces confined to Battalion 268.[14]
On March 11, 2025, the junta launched a counteroffensive to break the siege, sending 40–50 soldiers to reinforce Battalion 268. The CNDF reported that the junta’s reliance on airstrikes showed its inability to mount effective ground operations due to depleted ranks and low morale.[13]
On April 8, 2025, the Chin Brotherhood Alliance and allied forces succeeded to captured Infantry Battalion 268 (IB-268), the last remaining junta stronghold in Falam.[14]
Aftermath
editThe junta responded to the capture by deploying daily airstrikes with various aircraft, such as jet fighters and Mi-35 helicopters, to regain control over Falam but failed.[14]
On 25 April 2026, Tatmadaw troops regained control of Falam.[15][16] The Chinland Council attributed Myanmar Air Force strikes as contributing to the recapture.[17]
The Tatmadaw engaged in a total of 109 major and minor clashes with the insurgents to retake Falam township and the surrounding area, capturing 19 bodies, 33 weapons, ammunition, and related equipment from the Chin Brotherhood alliance. Some Tatmadaw officers and soldiers casualties were reported according to the government press release.[18]
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/war-against-the-junta/myanmar-regime-recaptures-chin-states-falam.html.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Unknown parameter|name=ignored (help) - ↑ Chin Brotherhood (CB) announces that the entire Falam Township has become a military council-free area Archived March 24, 2026, at megalodon.jp
- 1 2 3 ‘Inch by inch’: Myanmar rebels close in on key military base in Chin State Archived March 24, 2026, at megalodon.jp
- ↑ Eighty-nine Chin resistance members killed in Falam Township Archived March 24, 2026, at megalodon.jp
- ↑ Martin, Michael (2024-11-01). "Trouble Among the Chin of Myanmar". Center for Strategic & International Studies.
- ↑ "Ethnic rebels claim to control up to 85% of Myanmar's Chin state". Radio Free Asia. 2024-12-23. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- 1 2 "Chin Brotherhood takes Mindat, Falam Offensive Ongoing". Burma News International. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- 1 2 Irrawaddy, The (2025-04-08). "Chin Rebels Rout Myanmar Junta From Falam After Five-Month Battle". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ↑ "Resistance forces seize northern Chinland's Falam Township". DVB. Democratic Voice of Burma. 2025-04-10. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ↑ Now, Myanmar (2025-04-09). "Chin Brotherhood takes over last junta base in Chin State town". Myanmar Now. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- 1 2 Irrawaddy, The (2024-11-15). "Fighting Flares as Chin Rebels Launch Fresh Offensive". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ↑ "Myanmar rebels capture major military base in west, group says". Radio Free Asia. 2024-12-20. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- 1 2 3 "Myanmar's junta drops 'more than 500' bombs on Chin state town during week of clashes". Radio Free Asia. 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- 1 2 3 MPM (2025-04-08). "Chin Brotherhood captures junta's last remaining Battalion-268 in Falam » Myanmar Peace Monitor". Myanmar Peace Monitor. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ↑ "တပ်မတော်စစ်ကြောင်းများက CDF အမည်ခံအကြမ်းဖက်သောင်းကျန်းသူ ပူးပေါင်းအဖွဲ့များ ယာယီစိုးမိုးထားသည့် ဖလမ်းမြို့နှင့် အဆိုပါဒေသတစ်ခုလုံးအား အလုံးစုံပြန်လည်သိမ်းပိုက်ထိန်းချုပ်" [Tatmadaw columns have completely retaken control of Falam town and the entire region, which was temporarily controlled by the CDF terrorist group.]. myanmar.gov.mm (in Burmese). Archived from the original on April 25, 2026. Retrieved 2026-04-25.
- ↑ "Military Regains Control of Falam Town". cnimyanmar.com. Retrieved 2026-04-25.
- ↑ "Myanmar Regime Recaptures Chin State's Falam". The Irrawaddy. April 27, 2026.
- ↑ "■CDF ပူးပေါင်းအဖွဲ့များ ယာယီစိုးမိုးထားသည့် ဖလမ်းမြို့နှင့် ၎င်းဒေသတစ်ခုလုံးအား တပ်မတော်စစ်ကြောင်းများက ပြန်လည်ထိန်းချုပ်" [Tatmadaw columns regain control of Falam town and the entire region, which was temporarily controlled by CDF affiliates.]. Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd (in Burmese). Retrieved 2026-04-25.