Myanmar alliance says agreed 4-day ceasefire with junta in Shan state

An alliance of Myanmar ethnic minority armed groups said Sunday it had agreed a four-day ceasefire with the junta in northern Shan state following clashes in which its fighters seized territory from the military along a strategic highway to China.

The area has been rocked by fighting since late last month, when the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance renewed an offensive against junta troops along the road to China's Yunnan province.

The clashes shredded a previous Beijing-brokered truce that in January halted an earlier push by the alliance -- made up of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

"We... showed cooperation with China by agreeing a four-day ceasefire in northern Shan" from 14-18 July, Major-General Tar Bhone Kyaw of the TNLA told AFP.

The new agreement did not cover the neighbouring Mandalay region, where members of the alliance and other opponents of the military have been battling junta troops in recent weeks, Tar Bhone Kyaw said.

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.

Beijing's top leaders are gathering on Monday for the Communist Party's secretive Third Plenum -- a key political meeting.

In the latest fighting, the TNLA claimed to have captured two towns along the highway that runs from Myanmar's second city Mandalay to China's Yunnan province.

One of the towns, Naungcho, is around 50 kilometres (30 miles) down the highway from the former British hill station of Pyin Oo Lwin, home to the military's elite officer training academy.

Clashes have also rocked the town of Lashio, home to the military's northeastern command.

Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting, 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.

Some have given shelter and training to newer "People's Defence Forces" (PDFs) that have sprung up to battle the military after it ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government in 2021.

In recent days, PDF fighters have battled junta forces in Madaya township, around an hour north of Mandalay.

Amid the renewed fighting earlier this month, top junta general Soe Win travelled to China to discuss security cooperation along the border.