Air raids, conscripts and China: How Myanmar’s military is regaining ground

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Myanmar’s military is regaining territory from anti-coup rebel forces, helped by a mix of intensified airpower, a wider conscription drive and pressure from China on some armed groups. The article focuses on the loss of Falam, a strategic town in Chin State near the Indian border, which rebel fighters said they abandoned in April after months of attacks and severe ammunition shortages. Its capture gave the military control of an airport and a key trade route, and was followed by further gains in northern Chin State.

The report says the broader conflict, which began after the February 2021 coup, has shifted after rebel advances in 2023 and 2024. Analysts cited by Al Jazeera say the military has added large numbers of conscripts, while air strikes have helped it reclaim towns and disrupt resistance logistics. The article also says Beijing has brokered ceasefires with some ethnic armed groups and helped limit arms flows to others, easing pressure on the military in several areas.

Al Jazeera notes that the fighting remains far from resolved. It cites ACLED and UN figures on deaths and displacement, and says the war has produced a major humanitarian crisis. While the military has recaptured some strategically important locations, analysts quoted in the piece say this has not produced a decisive victory and may instead prolong a war of attrition.

The article places the latest battlefield shifts in the context of planned and tightly controlled elections, continued air attacks on civilians, and resistance groups moving toward more mobile, defensive tactics as they try to preserve manpower and supply lines.