Air raids, conscripts and China: How Myanmar’s military is regaining ground

Published On 30 Aug 202630 Aug 2026.

Key points

• The Myanmar Internet Project counted 520 air strikes from April through June, hitting 87 townships and killing at least 314 civilians, including 41 children.
• The fighters had endured a six-month assault by Myanmar's military, including more than 2, 500 air strikes and a ground assault by roughly 1, 000 troops.
• "Falam taught us an important lesson, " remarked Salai William Chin, a member of the rebel Chin Brotherhood.
• The war, which began after a military coup in February 2021, is now in its fifth year.
• The rebel fighters who abandoned Falam in Myanmar in April remarked they provided up the strategic border town near India only after running out of bullets.

Notably, the rebel fighters who abandoned Falam in Myanmar in April remarked they provided up the strategic border town near India only after running out of bullets.

In practice, the fighters had endured a six-month assault by Myanmar's military, including more than 2, 500 air strikes and a ground assault by roughly 1, 000 troops. The fall of the town, which had been under opposition control for a year, marked a strategic victory for the military: Falam is home to the only airport in Chin State and commands a trade route to the Indian border.

Within weeks, three more towns in Chin had fallen, and by late May, the military was claiming control of the entire northern part of the state.

"Falam taught us an important lesson, " remarked Salai William Chin, a member of the rebel Chin Brotherhood. As well as "the ability to withstand repeated attacks, especially from the air", "Capturing a town and holding it are two very different challenges, " he remarked, noting that maintaining control required manpower, logistics, administration. But he promised to keep fighting.

"I would not measure success only by whether we permanently hold every town, " he informed Al Jazeera. "Where the military has a significant advantage, especially through airpower, mobile warfare may sometimes be more effective. The significant thing is to preserve our forces, protect civilians and maintain our ability to continue the struggle."

For context, the retreat is part of a broader reversal. Myanmar's opposition – a loose coalition of militias and ethnic armed organisations fighting the military that seized power in a 2021 coup – has been weakened. When coordinated offensives stripped the military of dozens of towns, have given way to a steady withdrawal from the urban centres the rebels had captured, their gains in 2023 and 2024.

Analysts say the shift has been driven by a number of factors: a mass conscription drive that has refilled the military's ranks with tens of thousands of troops, a devastating air campaign that has killed hundreds of civilians, and backing from China. It has brokered ceasefires between the military and some powerful ethnic armed groups while helping choke off weapons supplies to others.

But the military is unlikely to score "existential or politically decisive wins" against the opposition, wrote Su Mon, an analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project. She cautioned in a recent briefing note that the country "faces a protracted war of attrition" and a mounting humanitarian crisis in the coming months.

For context, the war, which began after a military coup in February 2021, is now in its fifth year. It began after a brutal crackdown on unarmed protesters, with young residents taking up arms and forming militias known as the People's Defence Forces (PDF). They were aided by powerful armed ethnic organisations who control Myanmar's borderlands, some of which have fought for autonomy since the country's founding in 1948.

While the United Nations notes 3.9 million residents have been displaced and an estimated one in three individuals requires humanitarian assistance, according to ACLED, deaths in the conflict have now surpassed 100, 000.

Earlier this year, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. This person led the 2021 power grab, presided over tightly controlled elections, with major opposition parties barred from participating and voting impossible, or boycotted, throughout much of the country. He was sworn in as president in April, completing his passage from commander-in-chief to head of a nominally civilian administration in Naypyidaw.

Min Aung Hlaing now notes his administration wants peace discussions with armed opponents, including in Chin. But the fighting continues. Capture of strategic towns.

Meanwhile, the military has opened new operations this year in Chin, Kachin, Kayin and Rakhine States, and according to ISP-Myanmar, an independent think tank, it has now retaken 22 of the 101 towns it lost after the coup. That amounts to 9 percent of the lost territory, but the areas are strategically located and include key trade corridors linking border areas to central Myanmar, where the military's main bases are located.

Their capture has disrupted the "economic and logistical capacity of many resistance groups", according to Su Mon at ACLED. And "while the military has yet to fully restore its own regime administration in these areas", she wrote, "the victories have effectively hindered resistance coordination", and are pushing the opposition groups "away from large-scale coordinated offensives to defensive guerrilla warfare". The Myanmar military has lauded the battlefield wins.

While state media has run photographs of what it described as triumphant troops returning from operations around the country, speaking in Bangkok this month, Min Aung Hlaing remarked Myanmar was "on the path of democracy and heading towards a better future".

Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst, remarked a mass conscription drive and Chinese backing have proven pivotal for the military.

Close to 150, 000 troops have been continued to its combat ranks since 2024 through conscription, he stated, with plenty of of the conscripts barely trained, but numerous enough to grind forward. Pressure from China has pulled two powerful opposition forces, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, out of the fight, freeing the military to redeploy troops elsewhere. Beijing additionally pressed the United Wa State Army, one of Myanmar's strongest ethnic armed groups, to stop selling weapons to opposition groups, contributing to ammunition shortages nationwide.

"Unchallenged airpower has from the beginning of the war provided the with a crucial advantage, " Davis continued, both in resupplying troops and in carrying out attacks against opposition forces. Meanwhile, "the rapid proliferation of drone technology in both surveillance and strike roles, along with improved battlefield coordination between different combat arms, have both boosted capability", he remarked. The toll on civilians has been severe.

In practice, the Myanmar Internet Project counted 520 air strikes from April through June, hitting 87 townships and killing at least 314 civilians, including 41 children. Chin State was hit hardest, with 122 strikes, followed by Sagaing with 101, and Rakhine with 98.

Phil Robertson, the director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates organisation, remarked that "the inability of the resistance to counter the military's air superiority" had weakened drive among opposition forces.

"Air attacks demoralise PDFs and other resistance troops, and scatter civilians who have supported the rebels, " he informed Al Jazeera. Still, the anti-military forces insist that the war is not lost.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi, an activist living in exile, remarked opposition networks are still training organisers and building backing. "Even in the face of mass murder, in the face of massive violations, we have that courage and integrity that we resist, and we reject, " she remarked. "Myanmar people keep up that spirit, and we will keep on going." In Chin, Salai William Chin remained resolute.

"We do have further plans, but it is still too early to speak publicly about them, " he remarked. "I would not say that airpower has permanently decided the battlefield. It remains a serious challenge, but warfare continues to evolve, and resistance forces additionally continue to learn and adapt."

For now, air raids, conscripts and China: How Myanmar's military is regaining ground remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.