Anti-junta forces capture Lashio and detain top Myanmar military officials

Opponents of Myanmar’s military regime arrested at least three top-ranking military officials over the weekend as they completed their takeover of Lashio, northern Shan State’s largest city. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) announced on Saturday that it had successfully captured the headquarters of the junta’s Northeastern Regional Military Command (RMC) in Lashio after a month of intense fighting. The announcement came a day after the ethnic Kokang armed group and its allies captured a military hospital within the command HQ compound, taking nearly 500 prisoners, including injured soldiers and their families. According to Capt Zin Yaw, a defector to the resistance, three senior military officials were also among those detained: Maj-Gen Soe Tint, who was replaced as Northeastern RMC commander on July 18; Brig-Gen Thant Htin Soe, the third in command; and Brig-Gen Myo Min Htwe, head of Military Operations Command 1. Brig-Gen Soe Hlaing, Soe Tint’s appointed successor, was unable to assume his position at the RMC headquarters before it was captured. On Sunday, junta spokesperson Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun confirmed that the military commanders in charge of the Northeastern RMC headquarters had been arrested. “We were in contact with them until 6:30pm but lost contact afterward. We have heard they are under arrest,” he said. Lashio, a regional administrative centre and major gateway to the trading hub of Muse on the China-Myanmar border, has been the main focus of an anti-junta offensive that resumed on June 25 following the collapse of a Chinese-brokered ceasefire. While fighting for control of the city—which began on July 3 and killed more than 100 civilians—had come to a halt by Sunday, residents reported hearing intermittent gunfire in some areas. “We could hear a few shots being fired here and there, and we still can’t enter Wards 9 or 10,” said a local man who was among those who returned on Sunday to collect some of the belongings they had left behind as they fled the conflict. “The current situation is not good for people to come back,” he added. Dozens of volunteers were also seen in the city, clearing piles of rubble that were all that was left of some buildings. Local social welfare groups warned against returning until the situation has “normalised.” Two other armed groups, the Bamar People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Liberation Army, fought alongside the MNDAA in the battle for Lashio, which delivered a major blow to the regime that seized power more than three years ago. The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which like the MNDAA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, has also made significant gains since late June, capturing the towns of Nawnghkio and Mongmit (Momeik) in Shan State and the ruby-mining town of Mogok in Mandalay Region. Other groups more loosely aligned with the alliance, such the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF), which operates under the command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government, have also made major advances. On July 17, the MDY-PDF and allied forces captured the town of Singu, about 57 miles north of the city of Mandalay. Since then, they have captured dozens of junta outposts in Madaya Township, just north of Myanmar’s second-largest city. Meanwhile, the TNLA and its allies continue to fight to capture two junta bases north of Kyaukme, a town in northern Shan State about 67 miles southwest of Lashio.

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