Fighting between the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Military Council has resumed and is currently escalating in northern Shan State, where the Ta’ang armed group has been launching offensives against the Burma army after it was shelling its positions for months, ignoring a fragile ceasefire between the groups brokered by China.

As TNLA fighters attacked regime installations in Kyaukme Township, two people were killed and four injured.

“At the moment, the situation is so complicated on the ground. Fighting has broken out in Kyaukme after shells struck the town. No one dares to go out from their home,” a local man has told SHAN. “It’s not close range fighting, both groups are shelling each other and some of these are striking civilian wards and killing people.”

When the clashes started near a market area in Ward 8 on the morning of June 25, a shell killed one man and injured another. People fled to the villages of Kyaukme Lay and Nur Peng.

A woman was fatally shot in the head in the town’s Ward 9.

Regime shells rained upon Pan Pao, injuring a 14-year-old girl in the village along the Union Highway.

TNLA attacked the Military Council’s Light Infantry Battalion 501 and 502 at around 6 am on June 25. Fighting is spreading around Nyein Chan Yay Kon, Ner Aik Khan, Sakhan Tha and Lung Wel villages and there are junta military aircraft flying over Hsipaw, Kyaukme and Nawngkio townships.

Locals reported that TNLA, Mandalay People’s Defence Force (PDF) and Danu People’s Liberation Army staged attacks in Nawngkio Township around 7 am on June 25, with fighting intensifying around the villages of Ohmmathi, Ohmma Hkar, Yay Maung Tan and Kyauk Kyan.

Many Military Council aircraft were flying overhead. At midnight the day before, a junta airstrike killed a villager and injured another person.

An Ohmmathi man travelling in a vehicle died after being shot in the neck upon arriving in Bang Bwe on June 25.

The resistance forces attacked Burma army camps, which are based in Ohmmathi and Shwe Nyaung Pin villages of Nawngkio township, around 5 am on June 25. They seized government departments in Nawngkio in northern Shan State after intensive fighting in the town later that day. Local people said that the clashes spread near Nawngkio Public Hospital, which the groups have taken as well as the Fire Services Department and the police station the town.

A local source said there were clashes happening near IB 115 before it started spreading in the town. “I heard that many TNLA and allied forces are attacking Burma army camps in Nawngkio.”

TNLA General Secretary Maj-Gen Tar Bong Kyaw blamed the Military Council for the violence after violating the Haigeng ceasefire agreement brokered by China in January by repeatedly shelling and flying airstrikes on its installations in Nawngkio and Mongmit townships for months.