Armed groups continue to attack vehicles on highway in northern Myanmar

The armed groups continued to attack vehicles passing by on the highway in Kutkai, northern Myanmar, the government said Saturday.

The Information Committee of the State Counselor's Office said the combined forces of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Kokang's Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) stopped vehicles on union highway near Nangphalon village , about 20 km away from Kutkai on Friday morning and torched two 22-wheel vehicles and a passenger bus.

Moreover, the armed groups numbering about 150 blew up the Namsa wooden bridge near Namsa village of Kutkai in the afternoon.

Military conflicts broke out in the border area of northern Myanmar's Shan state last Sunday with an alliance of the three ethnic armed groups launching simultaneous and surprise attacks on government's military outposts and police stations in Muse and Kutkai townships as well as a border trade center there.

Their attacks targeted government military outposts and police stations in areas of Muse, Kutkai, Monekoe, Kyukoke, Phangsai, Pangsang, Manken and Kyinsankyawk (Honang).

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, in the capacity of chairperson of the National Reconciliation and Peace Center, on Wednesday urged the armed groups in her first remarks to join the government's peace process by signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA) to immediately end the conflicts. Endit