YANGON: Myanmar’s junta chief said the military will strike back at ethnic armed groups waging an offensive in the north of the country, seizing towns and blocking trade routes to China, state media reported on Friday (Nov 3).
Fighting has raged for a week across a wide swathe of Shan state in what analysts say is the biggest military challenge to the junta since it seized power in 2021.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA) said on Thursday they had captured dozens of outposts and four towns and blocked vital trade routes to China.
“The government will launch counter-attacks” against the armed groups, Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech to members of the State Administration Council, as the junta calls itself.
MNDAA and TNLA fighters had “attacked local security camps and departmental offices in the Kokang region” bordering China, he said, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
He also accused the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) – an ethnic armed group in neighbouring Kachin state – of attacking “transport facilities” and military bases and warned the military would retaliate.
Source: CNA
