Myanmar’s military has 14 regional commands across the country, from the Himalayan foothills in the north to the sprawling southern delta region bordering the Indian Ocean.
Soldiers in at least 10 of them are currently engaged in fighting established ethnic minority armed groups or newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up to battle the military since its 2021 coup.
The capture of the Lashio post would be the first time the military has lost a regional command during the conflict which erupted more than three years ago.
The military is yet to recover territory in northern Shan state lost to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups, including the MNDAA, launched late last year.
That offensive saw the MNDAA capture the city of Laukkai near the China border after around 2,000 junta troops surrendered, in one of the military’s biggest single defeats in decades.
Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting in Shan state, according to the junta and local rescue groups.
Neither the junta nor the ethnic alliance have released figures on their own casualties.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
