Myanmar’s rebels closing in around junta into fifth year of civil war 

FILE - A photo released by the Arakan Army shows its members posing in front of the Gwa town signboard at the entrance gate, following their capture of Gwa Township in southern Rakhine State, Myanmar, on Dec. 29, 2024. FILE - Members of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and Mandalay People's Defense Force pose for a photograph in front of a captured building in Nawnghkio township, Shan state, June 26, 2024. (Mandalay People's Defense Force via AP)

Myanmar’s rebel groups made historic gains last year, the fourth of a civil war set off by a military coup in February 2021, seizing wide swathes of the country’s west and northeast and overrunning two of the regime’s regional command bases for the first time.