One morning last October as the dawn light touched the cold hills of northern Myanmar a barrage of rockets and drones streaked through the sky and slammed into dugouts and bases housing military troops.
The fiery spectacle was repeated across a hundred-kilometre (60-mile) stretch of Shan state, heralding the launch of an offensive by an ethnic minority alliance that has left the ruling junta battered and its opponents daring to believe it can be toppled.
