This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
A Myanmar insurgent group has captured senior army officers after seizing their regional headquarters, a military spokesperson announced on Monday, in a stunning setback for the embattled junta that seized power in a 2021 coup.
The officers included Maj. Gen. Soe Tint, the commander of the junta’s northeastern regional military headquarters, according to the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA.
He’s the highest ranking military junta officer to be apprehended by insurgents since the military overthrew an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The MNDAA said it captured the headquarters in the Shan state town of Lashio last week. It is the first such headquarters that rebels fighting to end military rule have captured.
“We had communication with the senior officers until 6:30 in the evening on Aug. 3, but we’ve been out of contact until now,” junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said in Monday’s statement.
“According to unconfirmed reports, some senior officers have been arrested by terrorist insurgents,” he said.
The junta spokesperson did not say how many officers had been captured or give any names or ranks but junta-aligned media have reported that Regional Chief of Staff Brigadier General Thant Htin Soe and chief of the Kyaukme-based Operation and Command Headquarters, Brigadier General Myo Min Htwe, were also in MNDAA custody.
Radio Free Asia tried to contact MNDAA spokesperson Li Kyar Win to confirm the reports but he didn’t immediately respond.
The loss of the regional headquarters will likely lead to further junta setbacks in the area, political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA.
“It was the largest military command in Shan State,” he said.
Junta chief appears on TV
On Monday, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged the losses of troops and command posts, although he didn’t speak directly about the military headquarters in Lashio.
“Efforts will be made to restore peace and stability throughout the country, including northern Shan state,” he said in a speech shown on state media and other junta broadcast outlets.
“Members of Myanmar’s Tatmadaw, police forces, people’s militias, and patriotic citizens will be honored as the country’s leading heroes for their sacrifices in restoring peace and stability.”
Min Aung Hlaing has led the military junta as chairman of the State Administration Council – the junta’s formal name – since the February 2021 coup d’état.
Myanmar has been in turmoil ever since. Ethnic minority insurgents battling the military for decades have been joined by pro-democracy activists, and they’ve made significant gains in several parts of the country, particularly since late last year when the MNDAA and allied groups launched offensives.
The junta had recently prepared to defend Lashio by gathering more than 3,000 troops – many of whom had retreated from cities and towns recently lost to resistance forces.
However, the MNDAA and its allies were able to seize the northeastern command in less than a month.
Myanmar has 14 such regional military command headquarters.
The MNDAA said on Saturday that more than 470 wounded junta soldiers and their family members had been evacuated from the headquarters’ hospital on Thursday.
Neither side has announced casualty figures, but at least nine civilians have been killed in the fighting and thousands of Lashio residents have fled from the battered city where electricity, phone and internet communications have been cut off for more than a month.
A Lashio resident told RFA on Monday that the MNDAA wasn’t allowing people to return to their homes, even though the sounds of gunfire have subsided.
“We did not hear the fighting in Lashio this morning. The trapped people are allowed to leave outside, but no one is allowed to go back home permanently,” the resident said. “The damage, debris and the dead bodies are being cleared.”
