Myanmar’s junta said it has recaptured a key town and villages in Karen and Mon states in southern Myanmar.
Karen armed groups and allies seized most of Kawkareik in Karen State in late February. The town at the foot of the Dawna Hills controls the regime’s access to Myawaddy on the Thai border.
Fighting restarted in mid-April in Kawkareik and anti-regime forces said they left the town to ambush an approaching junta convoy.
The regime said it retook Kawkareik on April 22 and urged residents to return as troops are “carrying out rehabilitation and clearing mines for public safety”.
It said Kawbein village was retaken from Karen and Mon groups on April 25.
Kawbein is 32km from the Mon capital Mawlamyine, where the headquarters of the military’s Southeastern Command is based. The village is on the Gyaing River, the road linking Kyaikmayaw, Mawlamyine and Kawkareik townships and the border of Mon and Karen states.
Kawbein fell on March 25 after the village police station was seized by the Mon Liberation Army, New Mon State Party’s Anti-Dictatorship splinter group, the drone unit of the Karen National Defense Organization and their allies.
But the village surrendered to around 300 junta troops last week with anti-regime troops at the village blaming bombardment from junta naval vessels on the Gyaing River and airstrikes.
On Monday the regime said some villagers have returned to their homes.
The junta said it also recaptured nearby Dhama Tha village, which fell on March 27 to Karen and Mon groups. More than 300 of the village’s 1,000 houses were reportedly destroyed by junta shelling in late March.
