<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Myanmar’s ruling junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover lost outposts near the Chinese border from rebels, the military said.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The toppling of Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a 2021 coup sparked a huge backlash and the military junta is now battling opponents across swathes of the country.</div><div><br></div><div>The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked Myanmar military positions around Muse district in northern Shan state on Thursday and near the remote town of Laiza in Kachin state yesterday.</div><div><br></div><div>The military was forced to retreat yesterday afternoon and ordered air strikes, as well as artillery and troop reinforcements, the junta said in a statement shortly before midnight yesterday.</div><div><br></div><div>The KIA said today that the military had counter-attacked with air strikes and ground artillery.</div><div><br></div><div>It added that the junta had suffered some fatalities in the latest clashes this week but did not provide a death toll.</div><div><br></div><div>“We seized a lot of guns and other equipment from the military,” KIA colonel Naw Bu told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>The KIA controls large parts of the Christian-majority Kachin state and has clashed with Myanmar’s military for decades.</div><div><br></div><div>The region has seen intense fighting since the coup, and the junta accuses the KIA of training People’s Defence Forces that have sprung up in resistance.</div><div><br></div><div>Muse lies on the path of a proposed US$8.9 billion high-speed rail link from China’s landlocked Yunnan province to Myanmar’s west coast, a key part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.</div><div><br></div><div>The junta has been accused of carrying out multiple bloody attacks on civilians as it struggles to crush resistance to its 2021 coup.</div><div><br></div><div>Nearly 30 people were killed and dozens were wounded this month after a military strike on a camp for displaced people near Laiza.</div><div><br></div><div>Amnesty International said the deadly attack on the camp was likely the result of the Myanmar military using a large unguided aerial-delivered bomb, while the junta blamed the explosion on a store of rebel bombs. According to AFP reports&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>