Burmese take Kachin mountain outpost after artillery barrage Ethnic Kachin refugees from Burma protest against the Burmese military attack on minority rebels outside the US consulate in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand. Photograph: Pongmanat Tasiri/EPA Kachin rebels have lost the last major stronghold protecting their headquarters in Laiza, sparking fears that the town - under rebel control for the past 50 years - may soon fall to government troops and force refugees into China. The outpost of Hka Ya Bum, the most strategic peak in a mountain range five miles west of Laiza, fell on Saturday after days of heavy bombardment by the Burmese forced rebel soldiers with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to withdraw to positions farther south. "The Burmese army has gained control of the highest peak and now controls much of the mountain range," said Colonel Zau Tawng from the KIA's central command office in Laiza. There are another two ranges between Hka Ya Bum and Laiza, but... this very strategic mountain peak, the highest mountain peak in the range, means that [the Burmese army] doesn't need to move ground troops in. If they continue to launch artillery fire, we may have to retreat further. While the KIA has long held pockets of territory throughout this mountainous terrain, the rebels have been fighting an entirely defensive war since Christmas, when Burmese troops launched a new offensive using fighter jets, helicopters, heavy weaponry and large numbers of soldiers. The KIA is vastly outnumbered and under-armed as it fights roughly 10 battles every day on four separate fronts all across the state, which stretches across Burma's north and borders India and China. Casualties are high, with unofficial reports suggesting as many as 100 soldiers were wounded in Saturday's battle at Hka Ya Bum. The KIA, which would not comment on these figures, refused to let journalists visit the civilian and military hospitals around Laiza. While a unilateral ceasefire was agreed by the Burmese government last week, the fighting has continued. On Thursday, about 1,200 mortar rounds were fired in two hours against outposts on Hka Ya Bum, the most recorded in the state's five decades of war, while two mortars fired into Laiza town itself killed three people and injured four a few days earlier. Relief agencies working in Kachin state believe that roughly 100,000 people across Kachin have been displaced because of the fighting. The conflict - which resumed in July 2011 after nearly 20 years of peace between rebels and the government - has cast a shadow over Burma's apparent attempts at reform. The Kachin, a Christian-majority group in Buddhist-majority Burma, are the only ethnic minority yet to sign a ceasefire agreement with President Thein Sein - who has instituted a series of economic and political reforms since coming to power in 2011 - as they say they have long been oppressed by the Burmese government and want the right to self-rule. Although Thein Sein said last week that Laiza would not be taken by Burmese troops, many Kachin believe it unlikely that the army - which has blatantly ignored Thein Sein's calls for ceasefires in the past - would uphold that promise.According to Laiza's mayor Naw Awn, nearly half the town - which is separated from China only by a stream and is normally home to around 15,000 people - has already fled. Most of Laiza's shops are shuttered, many homes are abandoned and stray dogs wander the dark, curfewed streets, their owners having left them behind. "Those [residents] who are far from the border area [with China] should evacuate to a safer area because the Burmese army fires artillery arbitrarily, so, yes, I am encouraging people to move," he says from an office looking out at China. Just behind Naw Awn's office, teams of Kachin women are cooking over open cauldrons, frying up pork and vegetables to be sent to soldiers on the frontline. Marip Roi Ja, 54, whose husband and two sons are fighting, said: "We are outnumbered and lack powerful weapons, and of course everybody is worried Laiza will fall, but we believe in God, that he will protect Laiza." New bunkers can be found behind many of Laiza's homes, and bunkers also line the dirt walls behind the school at Ja Yeng, Laiza's largest IDP camp, where over 7,300 have taken refuge, and a 24-hour prayer service is in place. With leaders from the Kachin Independence Organisation, the political wing of the KIA, expected to meet Burmese negotiators in the next two weeks to discuss a resolution to the conflict, many Kachin hope - but do not predict - the violence will end any time soon.