The military’s 2021 putsch sparked renewed fighting with powerful, China-backed ethnic rebel groups in the northern Shan state, home to a planned billion-dollar rail link, part of Beijing’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a “military operation”, they said in a statement.
The operation aims to block the military’s ability to send reinforcements to Shan state and target its ability to launch airstrikes on the region, it said, without giving details.
The three groups – which analysts say can call on at least 15,000 fighters between them – have clashed regularly with the military since the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government.
A separate statement from the MNDAA said its fighters had closed the roads from the trade hub of Lashio to Chinshwehaw and Muse on the China border ahead of a “major offensive”.
AFP could not verify the claim.
A rescue worker in Lashio who requested anonymity for safety reasons told AFP that rebels had begun shelling the military base in the town from 4am local time and that the military had responded with artillery fire.
Local media footage showed what it said was a destroyed toll gate on a road in Lashio.
Pro-military Telegram channels said the rebels were attacking 12 towns or settlements across a swathe of Shan state, covering an area approximately 100km wide.
Those included Lashio, as well as Muse, Chinshwehaw, and Laukkai, the latter of which lies near the border with China.
A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The three ethnic rebel groups had “launched joint force attacks against the Myanmar Army”, Brigadier-General Tar Bhone Kyaw of the TNLA told AFP.
Earlier this month, nearly 30 people were killed and dozens were wounded in a strike on a camp for displaced people in neighbouring Kachin state.
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), another ethnic rebel group that controls the area, blamed the junta for the attack.
Last week, the junta ordered airstrikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover outposts it had lost in subsequent fighting with the KIA, the military and rebels said.
A KIA spokesman told AFP he was not sure if its fighters had joined today’s attacks.