Fierce clashes continued near the Thai border in Karen State’s Myawaddy town on Wednesday as ethnic Karen soldiers and allied troops launched a second day of attacks to defeat the last remaining junta battalion in Myawaddy Township.
The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allies from the National Unity Government’s armed wing, the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), began attacking the headquarters of Infantry Battalion 275 on Tuesday afternoon after defeating every other junta force in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township over the past several days.
They began attacking the battalion’s headquarters – located near an entrance to Myawaddy town – after its commanders refused to surrender during negotiations with resistance forces.
Myawaddy is the third-busiest land crossing between Myanmar and Thailand. It is located opposite Tak province’s Mae Sot town in Thailand. About US$ 1.1 billion in goods passed through Myawaddy over the past year, according to the junta-controlled Commerce Ministry.
The intensity of the fighting near Myawaddy prompted the Thai government to send troops to its border at Mae Sot to ensure security.
Myawaddy resident Ko Saw K told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday morning that fighting continued this morning and that the junta Y12 jets bombarded areas around the headquarters of its last remaining battalion in Myawaddy Township.
“There are no clashes inside the town, but residents are on alert,” he said.
Heavy explosions in Myanmar could be heard from Mae Sot as late as Wednesday afternoon and Myawaddy residents are fleeing to Thailand via the Mae Sot border gate, an Irrawaddy reporter on the ground said.
Karen media said the junta was sending reinforcements in about 100 military trucks and armored vehicles to Myawaddy from Hpa-an
Major Naing Maung Zaw of Karen State’s Border Guard Force (BFG) told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that troops from the force had taken positions in Myawaddy town and would try to prevent clashes in the town.
The BGF severed ties with the military regime in January and announced it would function as an independent army rather than one that served the junta.
Last Friday, the KNLA and allied PDF groups seized the regime’s strategic base in Thingyan Nyi Naung town, near Myawaddy on the Hpa-an-Kawkareik-Myawaddy Road. More than 600 regime forces and their family members surrendered to resistance forces.
The resistance groups seized a massive cache of weapons, as well as ammunition and vehicles, from the junta base.
