Clashes around key Myanmar town enter second week

AFP | Yangon

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Fighting raged for an eighth day around a Myanmar regional military headquarters, where an ethnic armed group had briefly captured a battalion command, one of its commanders said yesterday.

Northern Shan state has been rocked by clashes since late last month when an alliance of ethnic armed groups renewed an offensive against the military along a vital trade highway to China.

The clashes have shredded a Beijing-brokered truce that in January halted an offensive by the alliance of the Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the TNLA.

Fighting was ongoing around Lashio town, home to the junta’s northeastern command, yesterday, General Tar Bhone Kyaw of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) told AFP.

TNLA fighters had briefly captured the base of a military battalion there but junta air strikes had later forced them to retreat, he said.