Strategically important military HQ appears to have fallen to Myanmar resistance in a blow to regime

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military regime acknowledged Monday it had lost communications with the commanders of a strategically important army headquarters in the northeast, adding credence to claims from a militia group it had captured the base.

The fall of the army’s Northeast Command in the city of Lashio would be the biggest in a series of setbacks and a significant blow to Myanmar’s military government this year as an offensive launched by an alliance of powerful militias of ethnic minority groups continues to make broad gains in the country’s civil war.

“The regime’s loss of the Northeast Command is the most humiliating defeat of the war,” said Morgan Michaels, a Singapore-based analyst with the International Institute of Strategic Studies who runs its Myanmar Conflict Map project.

“Without Lashio, it will be extremely difficult for the regime to hold onto its final outposts in the theatre.”

Those include the key border crossing with China of Muse, as well as the strategic crossroads at Kyaukme, and it opens the way for attacks on Pyin Oo Lwin and Mandalay City, he said.

The loss also raises questions about whether the ruling military council could be forced to give up attempts to hold contested territory in order to consolidate a defense of the central heartland. It could also contribute to growing discontent with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the officer who seized power after leading the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

“The battle further underlines the utter failure of the army’s senior leadership, especially Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing,” Michaels said.

“It seems increasingly unlikely that the army could survive with Min Aung Hlaing at the helm.”

Lashio, about 110 kilometers (70