Clashes broke out in Kachin state’s Mohnyin district on Thursday following an ambush attack on a Myanmar military camp by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
The KIA ambushed the camp, based near the village of Sal Zin, early in the morning, according to Col Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the ethnic armed group.
At around 10am, the military started using fighter jets to carry out counterattacks, he added.
“We don’t know the details. But our central command hasn’t issued any orders to ambush military camps or clash in the cities,” he told Myanmar Now.
He noted that two KIA camps have been ambushed by Myanmar army troops in northern Shan state’s Kutkai township over the past month.
Tensions have been high between the army and ethnic armed groups since the military seized power in a coup on February 1.
Since the coup, the Myanmar army has clashed with the Karen National Union and the Restoration Council of Shan State, both signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
On February 20, all 10 armed groups that have signed the NCA announced that they would be putting political meetings for negotiations with the junta on hold.
The announcement also said that the groups support the Civil Disobedience Movement and other forms of public resistance to the coup and would find ways to support them.
Meanwhile, the ruling military council withdrew its designation of the Arakan Army as a terrorist organization on Thursday, after months of relative peace in Rakhine state.
Until the two sides entered into a temporary ceasefire last November, they were engaged in some of the worst fighting seen in the country in recent years.
![Resistance fighters holding heavy weapons ammunition in central Myanmar. (Photo: Freedom Revolution Force [FRF])](https://myanmar-now.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/04/438869056_443267851680128_1706386881626943924_n-390x220.jpeg)
