Fall of Northeastern Command in northern Shan capital of Lashio tipped as a turning point for armed uprising against regime.

Fifty-two years after it was founded to fight the Communist Party of Burma in northeastern Myanmar near the Chinese border, the military’s Northeastern Command in Lashio, northern Shan State, fell on Saturday.

The defeat marks the first time since 1962, when the military staged its first coup, that a military command has been lost to ethnic armed groups and their allies. It was also a major milestone for Myanmar’s resistance movement, which has captured its first command since the 2021 coup.