Myanmar’s minority ethnic militias said on Wednesday they had captured a town along a trade route to China after days of clashes, posing a new challenge for the military.
Fighting has been raging since late last month, when militant ethnic groups resumed attacking troops on a highway leading to China’s Yunnan province. The dispute broke Beijing’s cease-fire agreement that ended the January offensive by a coalition of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
Naungcho town is completely ours, TNLA General Tar Bhone Kyaw told AFP. Earlier on Wednesday, a military group told AFP that ethnic minority militias controlled much of the city.
AFP could not reach a government spokesman for comment. Naungcho is about 50km down the highway from Pyin Oo Lwin’s former British airfield, home to the Army’s military training academy.
Another road from the city leads to Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State. TNLA forces are also in the town of Lashio, where the southeast government is located, TNLA said.
His forces briefly captured the battalion’s army on the outskirts of the city but were forced to retreat when the army launched airstrikes, Tar Bhone Kyaw said. In Tonde, Purari said that 18 communities in Lasho died in the 24 injured and bombing, rockets and drones through connection.
The army carried out several airstrikes around the town of about 150,000 people, residents said.
In the convoy, escape
On Tuesday, residents of Lashio piled into trucks loaded with supplies and drove down flooded roads to escape the fighting, AFP footage showed. On Monday, about 45 people boarded boats to cross the swollen river.
Myanmar is home to many armed tribes who have fought since independence from Britain in 1948 for independence and economic control. Some have even supported and trained new People’s Defense Forces (PDF) who are fighting against militants who want to topple Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021.
In recent days, FPD forces and junta forces have been fighting in the town of Madaya, about an hour north of the second city of Mandalay. In a new attack last week, Army Chief General Soe Win visited China to discuss security cooperation along their border.
China is a major military partner and supplier, but analysts say Beijing also has ties to a militant clan in Myanmar, which has territory close to its border.
