Laukkai town//Photo by Myanmar Skyline
Yangon, Myanmar – Fighters from a Myanmar ethnic minority said Tuesday they had surrounded a town controlled by pro-military militia near the China border where hundreds of foreigners, including Thais, are feared to be held working in online scam compounds.
Fighting has raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state for more than two weeks after an alliance of ethnic minority groups launched a surprise offensive against the military.
One of those groups, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), said its fighters had surrounded the town of Laukkai in Shan state, around three kilometres (two miles) from the China border.
“We have surrounded Laukkai and soon will retake it,” the MNDAA said in a statement, without indicating when it would try to do so. MNDAA spokesman Li Jiawen separately told AFP no date had yet been set as…
