Clashes broke out near a regional military command in northern Myanmar on Wednesday, residents and local media said, in what appeared to be a widening offensive against junta troops.
Gunfire has rocked the northern Shan state town of Lashio, home to the military's northeastern command, since late Tuesday, one resident told AFP. "Since last night we have been hearing shooting targeting the regional military command... we dare not to go outside," they said, requesting anonymity. Fighting was happening outside the town, another resident told an AFP correspondent, who heard one explosion down the phone.
She said the military had closed all roads into Lashio but that some shops in the town were still open.
Videos uploaded to social media showed a wooden building destroyed and partly in flames, and local media reported six civilians had been killed in shelling. Lashio sits on a major highway that runs from the second city of Mandalay to China's Yunnan province.
All flights to Lashio from commercial hub Yangon had been cancelled since Wednesday morning, an airport source in Yangon told AFP, without giving further details.
The so-called "Three Brotherhood Alliance" of ethnic armed groups launched an offensive last October against the military near Lashio and along the China border.
The alliance seized swaths of territory and lucrative border crossings, dealing the junta its biggest blow since it seized power in 2021. China brokered a ceasefire between the military and the alliance in January -- made up of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
Late last month, the TNLA launched fresh attacks in Shan state and neighbouring Mandalay region.
"We three (members of the alliance) are together," TNLA General Tar Bhone Kyaw said when asked by AFP if the TNLA was involved in the fighting near Lashio.
He did not give further details.
AFP contacted an AA spokesman for comment, but was unable to reach the MNDAA or the junta.
Myanmar's borderlands are home to a myriad of ethnic armed groups, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.