This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
An insurgent group fighting the Myanmar military has captured a northern town on a main road to China, seizing the area’s last junta military bases after weeks of fighting, a senior official of the rebel group said on Tuesday.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, is a member of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which is battling the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup across Shan state in the northeast.
The group captured the headquarters of two junta battalions and the Operation Command Headquarters No. 1 in Kyaukme, a town on the road between the cities of Mandalay and Lashio on Monday, the TNLA official who wished to remain anonymous told Radio Free Asia.
He said the TNLA now had complete control of Kyaukme.
RFA tried to contact Shan state’s junta spokesperson, Khun Thein Maung, to ask about the situation in Kyaukme but he did not respond by the time of publication.
If confirmed, the capture of Kyaukme by the TNLA would be another major setback for the forces of the junta, coming just days after another member of the insurgent alliance seized the headquarters of the military’s Northeast Regional Command in Lashio.
Lashio is about half-way between Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay and the Chinese border.
Junta’s protest
In Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, and the capital Naypyidaw on Tuesday, junta supporters protested against the capture of Lashio by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA.
“I saw military council soldiers providing security during the protest. Some roads in front of Yangon City Hall were temporarily closed,” a Yangon resident told RFA. “It appears that the military council organized and reinforced the protest.”
Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing alleged in a speech on Monday evening that foreign countries have been assisting insurgents with technology and funding.
He also claimed that insurgents along the China-Myanmar border have been manufacturing weapons and ammunition, and have sold those items to People’s Defense Force militias.
The intense fighting in Lashio and elsewhere in Shan state prompted the Chinese Embassy in Yangon to warn Chinese citizens that they should leave the area as soon as possible and stay away from conflict zones.
The embassy’s statement on WeChat came a week after the MNDAA announced it would prioritize the protection of Chinese investments and workers in Shan state.
The MNDAA is also a member of the Three Brotherhood Alliance.
Mines and bombs
In Kyaukme, a resident who witnessed Tuesday’s fighting there confirmed that the TNLA had captured the junta’s positions that were defended by trenches, bunkers and mine fields.
“The junta dug trenches around all of the bases, including their Operation Command Headquarters, and built concrete bunkers everywhere,” said the resident, who declined to be identified, in fear of reprisals.
TNLA fighters had used drones to drop bombs on the junta’s defenses, the resident said.
“The whole hill has been turned into a bunker. The TNLA troops had to first clear mines slowly and the junta had the upper hand.”
Neither the TNLA nor the junta released estimates of casualty figures.
Kyaukme residents said junta forces had fled to a position about 6 kilometers (4 miles) away.
A former military officer told RFA that the junta’s recent loss of territory in Shan state was due to its forces being too far apart from one another.
“The forces have been scattered in the defenses. It is an unskillful war strategy of the military leaders,” he said.
While some civilians who had fled earlier were returning to their homes in Kyaukme, others were staying away in fear of junta airstrikes, said another resident. Junta forces have launched numerous airstrikes in Shan state and elsewhere, inflicting a heavy toll on civilians.
“We can’t hear any shooting and the TNLA have been securing the area,” the resident said. “The morning market is even operating normally. The only thing people are worried about is airstrikes. Everyone is afraid, the whole country is afraid of planes.”
The Three Brotherhood Alliance launched the second round of an offensive begun late last year, codenamed Operation 1027, in June after two China-brokered ceasefires between the junta and rebel groups broke down.
