Myanmar junta says senior officers held as rebels seize major base
Myanmar’s junta said it had lost communications with senior officers at a major military base near the Chinese border that rebels said they had seized.
Myanmar’s junta has lost communications with senior officers at a major military base near the Chinese border, in a rare admission of battlefield failure after rebels announced they had taken control of the key regional army headquarters.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) rebel group, which said on July 25 it had taken over the base but kept fighting to gain full control, posted photographs of its troops at the military stronghold in the town of Lashio on Saturday.
Junta troops have been unable to contact an undisclosed number of officers at the besieged northeastern regional command, military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said Monday, following weeks of intense fighting in and around the town.
“It has been found that senior officials were arrested,” he said in an audio message posted on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the junta was working to verify the situation.
Myanmar’s ruling generals are under unprecedented pressure, three years after unseating a civilian government in a dawn coup, with an armed rebellion against military rule gaining ground amid a stalling economy.
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