Fighting continues around Myanmar junta’s regional command HQ in Lashio

Clashes for control of the Myanmar regime’s Northeastern Regional Military Command headquarters in Lashio continued on Thursday, sources there reported. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which claimed last week that it had captured the command centre, came a step closer to actually realising that goal on Tuesday after neutralising a junta army unit guarding the city’s airport. Since then, the ethnic Kokang armed group has used its control of the airport to launch attacks on the regime’s main defensive position within the command headquarters compound, sources told Myanmar Now. “The main compound is still in [the military’s] hands, but there is just a wall separating the airport from the command HQ guesthouse,” said a local resident. However, it will likely take a full assault on the compound to successfully overrun it, according to Zin Yaw, a former Myanmar army captain who defected to the resistance. “Even if the main defensive position falls to the MNDAA, they will still need to attack the entire command headquarters, as more junta reinforcements are arriving all the time,” he said. A resident of Lashio’s Ward 1, which is adjacent to the command headquarters, reported hearing skirmishes and sniper fire in the area throughout the day on Thursday. Meanwhile, a pro-junta social media account claimed that the MNDAA had launched an assault on a military hospital inside the compound at around noon. There were also local media reports of an ambush on a convoy of regime reinforcements sent from Tangyan, a town about 85 miles southeast of Lashio. The convoy, carrying about 400 junta troops, was intercepted near the village of Mang Pang, about 67 miles southeast of Lashio, the Shan Herald Agency for News reported on Wednesday. According to the outlet, the convoy was forced to retreat after suffering heavy casualties, but exact figures were not available. Since entering Lashio on July 22, the MNDAA has reportedly taken control of seven wards, including the city centre. Junta airstrikes and heavy shelling by both sides have forced around two-thirds of the city’s residents to flee, according to relief workers. The remaining third are desperately in need of assistance, social welfare groups said, noting that the MNDAA has not allowed them to enter the city since July 12. “We would like to request the Kokang army to allow us to enter the town in order to evacuate the trapped residents,” said a representative of a Lashio social welfare team. According to one group, at least a thousand residents have been forced to shelter in two unfinished buildings since the fighting started. At least 100 civilians have been killed in Lashio in recent days, local volunteers told Myanmar Now on Wednesday.

Fighting continues around Myanmar junta’s regional command HQ in Lashio

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