The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allied People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups launched an onslaught against Infantry Battalion 275—the last battalion defending the frontier town of Myawaddy bordering Thailand—on Tuesday afternoon.
Within hours of the start of the attack, a junta warplane bombed Thukha Village on the outskirts of the town in Karen State.
Details on casualties from the fighting were not available at the time of reporting.
On Friday, the KNLA and its allies seized the regime’s outposts in nearby Thingannyinaung, prompting more than 600 people to surrender, including 410 soldiers.
Since then resistance forces have been trying to overrun Infantry Battalion 275 in Myawaddy, calling on the commander to surrender.
The resistance push to take Myawaddy prompted the Myanmar regime to send an aircraft to Mae Sot on the Thai side on Sunday to evacuate some government officials who had fled to the Thai town.
The attack was launched on Tuesday afternoon after the battalion refused to surrender.
The KNLA and allied forces were reportedly making their way into Myawaddy town at press time. Photos circulating on social media showed KNLA troops being deployed around the No. 1 Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Bridge at the border.
Residents of the town told The Irrawaddy shortly before the fighting erupted on Tuesday that people living near the battalion base were moving into the town in case of fighting.
Others had already fled to Mae Sot.
Prior to the resistance attack residents said downtown Myawaddy seemed mostly normal on Tuesday afternoon, though people looked more cautious than before and some shops were closed.
“People are in cautious mode as they sense there’s a possibility of fighting. We will have to flee if it happens,” a resident told The Irrawaddy.
Myawaddy is Myanmar’s third-busiest land crossing to Thailand, according to the junta’s Commerce Ministry, with some US$1.1 billion in goods passing through it over the last 12 months.
Periodic surges in fighting along the long Thai-Myanmar border send scores of people temporarily fleeing to the kingdom, before returning.
Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said on Tuesday morning that Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was concerned that the situation would worsen, referring to earlier clashes in the area.
On Tuesday, Thailand said it is prepared to accept 100,000 people fleeing Myanmar.
