Days of clashes with ethnic rebels in northern Myanmar have left 47 government soldiers dead and dozens more wounded, state media reported Friday.
The fighting with the Kokang rebels began Monday in the town of Laukkai, near the border with China, the state-run newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar said.
It reported that a total of 73 government troops had been wounded in the clashes between Monday and Thursday but didn’t provide any information about casualties among the rebels.
The Kokang guerilla forces “were found to be good at military maneuvering with the use of scores of heavy weapons including anti-aircraft machine guns,” the report said.
Multiple ethnic groups in Myanmar are seeking greater autonomy. Violence continues to erupt in some of the long-standing conflicts despite government efforts in recent years to reach a peace agreement.
The state-run newspaper reported Friday that government forces had eventually thwarted the Kokang rebels’ efforts to capture Laukkai and that situation in the town had since returned to normal.
CNN couldn’t independently verify the reports’ claims.
The fighting in Laukkai this week drove some residents of the area across the border into China’s Yunnan province, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
“We hope that relevant parties in northern Myanmar can resolve their differences via continuing to uphold peaceful talks and prevent the clashes from escalating and affecting border stability,” Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters.