Fighting between ethnic and junta troops for control of Muse – the key border trade zone between Myanmar and China in northern Shan State – continued to rage on Thursday despite recent “peace talks” between both sides in China’s Yunnan Province.
The focus of the battle is the regime’s 105th tactical command base in Muse border trade zone, according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
“We are clashing with the regime [at the 105th base],” TNLA spokesman Lt-Colonel Tar Aik Kyaw told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. He said that to defend the base, regime forces were using fighter jets and gunships to launch air strikes while its troops had turned to shelling.
Satellite photos show that the highly fortified base has a helipad, two foxholes believed to hold one cannon each, and trenches.
A military intelligence base is located east of the base, while a pro-junta Mantong militia base is located to the base’s southeast and a fire station is adjacent to the base to the north.
The Muse border trade zone accounts for about 70 percent of Myanmar’s cross-border trade with China.
The TNLA is one of three ethnic armies in the Brotherhood Alliance, which launched Operation 1027 on Oct. 27 to expel junta troops from northern Shan State. Its alliance partners are the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army.
The three ethnic armies began attacking Muse by targeting the junta’s Lone Khan base, which is located northeast of the 105th mile border trade zone, and has two helipads. After Lone Khan fell on November 26, the alliance began attacking the 105th tactical command base the next day.
Members of the alliance recently met junta peace negotiators in China’s Yunnan Province. Some reports said the two sides agreed to halt fighting until the end of this month, but the Brotherhood Alliance is continuing to attack the junta at Muse border trade zone.
The TNLA said reports that the Brotherhood Alliance seized control of the tactical command base on Thursday were false.
Since the launch of Operation 1027 on Oct. 27, the Brotherhood Alliance seized 53 junta positions in northern Shan State as of Dec. 7, the TNLA said.
