More than 20 junta soldiers were killed in recent clashes with the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Kokang ethnic armed organization said on Tuesday.
Over 120 junta troops and junta-affiliated militias marching into Laukkai Township in Kokang Self-Administered Zone in northern Shan State on Sunday were intercepted by the MNDAA, also known as the Kokang Group.
It is believed the junta troops were looking to engage MNDAA Brigade 511, according to Yan Naing, a spokesman for the group.
“Junta troops and Laukkai militias who have betrayed us came to attack us. We were able to blow up a junta vehicle that day [June 4], and around eight of them were killed,” the spokesman told The Irrawaddy.
The fighting continued on Monday. More than 20 junta soldiers were killed in two days of clashes and weapons were also seized from them, the MNDAA reported, supplying photos.
“They want to have greater control of the area in which we are active,” said Yan Naing.
On Monday, the MNDAA also raided two junta bases and a police station in Lashio, the largest town in northern Shan State, an area that borders China, Yan Naing confirmed to The Irrawaddy. The North-Eastern Command of the Myanmar military is based in Lashio.
MNDAA fighters attacked a police station and Light Infantry Battalion 507 in Lashio, and a junta outpost on the outskirts of the town. Casualties are still unknown.
Renewed fighting broke out between the Myanmar military and the Kokang Group on Friday, the very same day junta officials sat down for peace talks with the armed group and two of its allies in Shan State’s Mongla.
The fighting began as the junta’s peace negotiation team was meeting with the Northern Brotherhood Alliance Squad, which comprises the MNDAA, Arakan Army (AA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), with the involvement of Chinese government facilitators.
On the same morning that the two sides were meeting in Mongla, a clash broke out in Hseni Township when regime forces launched a raid on a temporary base of the MNDAA, said The Kokang News, the media wing of the ethnic rebel group.
To put pressure on groups that it is negotiating with, or to try to gain control of more territory, the military has long used the tactic of launching offensives against ethnic armed groups even as it meets with them to discuss ceasefires, a political analyst said.
The meeting ended without any settlement on June 2, managing only to spark clashes.
