BANGKOK – A prominent ethnic rebel group attacked and captured a military base in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border this morning, said an official from the group.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup, triggering an uprising that has seen security forces mount deadly crackdowns against protesters.
The anti-coup movement has garnered broad support across the country, including among some of Myanmar’s armed insurgent groups that have been fighting the military for more autonomy for decades.
One of the most vocal opponents, the Karen National Union (KNU), has clashed with the military in the former’s territory along the eastern border for weeks.
Today, fighting broke out in Karen state near the Salween River, which demarcates part of the border, with residents on the Thai side reporting that they heard gunfire and explosions coming from inside Myanmar.
“Our troops captured the Burmese military camp,” KNU’s head of foreign affairs, Padoh Saw Taw Nee, told AFP, adding that the fighting took place in the predawn hours.
“We could hear from the other side, we could hear the bullets,” said Hkara, a long-time resident of Mae Sam Laep within the Thai border, who is ethnic Karen and has only one name.
“We saw five or six Burmese soldiers running down to the river, and then we saw KNU shooting them, but it was very dark.”
Last month, after KNU overran a military base, the junta responded with multiple air strikes at night – the first use of air offensives in Karen in over 20 years.
Some villagers had already left their homes for other towns in fear of retaliation from the military, said Hkara.
“Nobody dares to stay... they ran early this morning already when the fighting started.”
Clashes have intensified in Karen in recent weeks, displacing more than 24,000 civilians, including some 2,000 who crossed the river to seek brief refuge on the Thai side.
An estimated one-third of Myanmar’s territory – mostly in its border regions – is controlled by a myriad of rebel groups, who have their own militias.
KNU has vocally condemned the military putsch, and said it is sheltering at least 2,000 anti-coup dissidents who fled urban centres of unrest.
Security forces have killed more than 750 civilians since February 1, according to a local monitoring group tracking the death toll.
The junta has a much lower figure, and blames the violence on “rioters”. – AFP, April 27, 2021
