Myanmar armed ethnic groups claim key northern town
online scam operations in another blow to the embattled junta.
The military is facing its biggest threat since seizing power in a 2021 coup after three armed ethnic groups — known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance — launched a sweeping October offensive in northern Shan state.
Since November people have been fleeing Laukkai town, located in a district bordering China that is run by a Myanmar military-aligned militia and notorious for gambling, prostitution and online scams run out of compounds staffed by thousands of people, many trafficked.
The alliance — made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) — said the town was now under their control.
«All members from the Myanmar Army's Military Operational Command in Laukkai were disarmed and Laukkai became a clean area where there are no more members of the Myanmar Army,» the alliance said in a statement.
It added that scores of junta soldiers, including some officers, had been captured and disarmed.
The junta has not commented.
TNLA Brigadier-General Tar Bhone Kyaw confirmed Saturday that the MNDAA had taken Laukkai.
«It is their land, they got it back now,» he told AFP.
«Their people will not have to stay anymore under the military regime,» he added.
— Online scams -
Laukkai is the latest town to fall to the alliance alongside vital border hubs, damaging trade between China and Myanmar's cash-strapped junta.
Leader Min Aung Hlaing made a name for himself in 2009 when, as a regional commander, he expelled the MNDAA from the town.
The military installed a militia that got rich producing drugs and selling a potent cocktail of gambling and sex to visitors from across the
