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Myanmar’s junta attacked a powerful insurgent group on Tuesday, just days after the rebels said they would stop fighting and end cooperation with a shadow civilian government opposing military rule.
The junta’s air force bombed Lashio, the main town in northern Shan state that the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, captured in August, killing a woman and wounding more than a dozen people on Tuesday, residents said.
The attack will raise new doubts about a Chinese effort to promote peace in its fractious neighbor.
The MNDAA is a member of a three-party insurgent alliance that made unprecedented gains against the military from late last year, especially in areas of Shan state on Myanmar’s northeastern border with China.
The MNDAA said in August that China, which has extensive economic interests in Myanmar including energy pipelines running up from the Indian Ocean coast, had warned it to stop fighting and closed off the border to trade to pressure the group into complying.
Days later the rebels said they would no longer cooperate with the National Unity Government, or NUG, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians after the military ousted a civilian government in 2021. The MNDAA also said it had no plans to seize the Shan state capital Taunggyi or Myanmar's second-largest city Mandalay.
But Tuesday's air raids would appear to be a setback to China’s efforts to push Myanmar’s warring rivals into a settlement.
“The military’s aerial bombardments, which are targeting civilian areas, are harming the efforts of those working to promote the peace process,” the MNDAA said in a statement.
The MNDAA said it would work with China to end the conflict and reiterated that it would not attempt to expand its territory. But it stopped short of promising to end all hostilities, saying it would defend its territory if necessary to ensure its autonomy.
Radio Free Asia tried to telephone Shan state’s junta spokesperson, Khun Thein Maung, to ask about the airstrike in Lashio but he did not answer his telephone.
Hotels bombed
A Lashio resident said junta jets carried out two bombing attacks on the town, about three hours apart, hitting the Ya Htike Hotel and the Fully Light Hotel as well as some shops.
“Four bombs were dropped on the same places in the two strikes. The hotels were badly damaged,” said the resident, who declined to be identified.
“The Lucky Gold Shop was also hit in the second strike, killing a woman near that building and injuring nearly 15 people,” the resident said.
MNDAA forces took the wounded, who were all residents of the area, to hospital, the resident added.
There was no immediate comment from China on the bombing.
China is known to have contacts with both the junta and its opponents fighting the military, especially the insurgent groups operating in northern and northern Myanmar on the Chinese border, like the MNDAA.
All sides have promised to protect China's business interests and citizens in Myanmar and China twice brokered ceasefires in Shan state this year though both quickly collapsed.
Analysts say China is hoping that an election the junta has promised to hold next year can pave the way for a resolution of Myanmar’s conflict, and it has offered help to organize the vote and a census that the military said will be held soon.
The MNDAA reiterated that it would not have any relationship with the civilian NUG, which says the junta’s election will be a sham, or any group that opposed China’s plans.
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Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.