Intense clashes are ongoing in northern Shan State despite a four-day unilateral ceasefire declared by the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance on Sunday, according to the ethnic alliance and residents.
The Brotherhood’s Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) called a halt to the fighting while the Communist Party of China holds a meeting.
However, clashes continued in the northern Shan State of Lashio on Monday, with reports of civilian casualties caused by shelling.
On Sunday night, five civilians were killed and two others including a Buddhist monk were injured when blasts ripped through a monastery and surrounding residential ward in Lashio, according to residents. Another civilian was shot dead nearby at a military checkpoint.
Clashes continued to break out at Light Infantry Battalion 507 headquarters in Lashio.
“My whole family fled the town earlier and I was left to look after my house. Fighting continued to break out and civilians were killed by shelling last night. So, I left the town this morning,” a Lashio resident told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
“I think the aim of the unilateral ceasefire is to allow remaining residents to leave the town. The situation in the town may worsen after the ceasefire.”
On Monday, the junta airlifted more troops, weapons and ammunition into Lashio while parachuting weapons and ammunition to frontline soldiers around the city, according to local Shan media reports. A video posted online shows crates being parachuted over Lashio.
The TNLA said clashes broke out when regime troops attacked its forces at three locations in Kyaukme Township despite the ceasefire.
It said junta forces also used drones and artillery to bombard areas around two villages in Nawnghkio on Monday.
A junta hilltop artillery base also shelled a residential ward and villages in Mogoke Township, northern Mandalay Region on Monday night, killing a mother and her child and injuring four civilians, according to the TNLA and local media reports.
The junta has responded to the renewed resistance offensive in northern Shan by bombing the capital of Kokang Self-Administered Zone, Laukkai, which is under MNDAA control.
The airstrikes have killed one civilian, injured several others and damaged civilian buildings including hotels, according to MNDAA media wing The Kokang News.
The Brotherhood Alliance of the MNDAA, TNLA and Arakan Army (AA), launched Operation 1027 in northern Shan State on October 17 last year, seizing hundreds of junta frontline bases, commander centers and 24 battalion headquarters, as well as around 20 towns and vital trade routes with China.
The operation was halted on January 10 after the ethnic alliance agreed to a China-brokered ceasefire with the regime.
The TNLA and MNDAA resumed the operation in northern Shan on June 25 after junta forces violated the ceasefire by repeatedly bombarding TNLA territory in early June.
Along with local resistance groups including the Mandalay People’s Defense Force under the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), the TNLA is attacking the regime in northern Shan and northern Mandalay Region.
MNDAA-led forces have been attempting to seize Lashio since July 3.
Phase 2 of Operation 1027 has seen the ethnic alliance and allies seize more than 80 junta bases, including almost a dozen battalion headquarters, while taking control of Kyaukme and Nawnghkio towns and a large part of Mogoke, known as ruby town.
