Alliance of 3 ethnic rebel groups carries out coordinated attacks in northeastern Myanmar

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — An alliance of ethnic rebel groups has launched a coordinated offensive in northeastern Myanmar to seize military targets in areas near the Chinese border. That’s according to the groups and residents of the area and it could become a new major front in the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation. The attacks were carried out Friday by the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, calling themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance. The groups in the rebel alliance, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.