Gunfire, artillery and exploding bombs may we heard early Saturday round Myawaddy, a Myanmar metropolis on the Thai border throughout from Mae Sot, as an ethnic Karen military closed in on about 200 junta troops stranded close to a bridge between the 2 international locations, in response to the Thai navy and a Radio Free Asia reporter on the scene.
The conflict comes after the Karen Nationwide Liberation Military, an armed department of the Karen Nationwide Union, on April 10 captured many of the junta’s Infantry Battalion 275 stationed outdoors of Myawaddy.
However 200 junta troopers had been left stranded on the customs compound on the No. 2 Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge throughout the Moei River that hyperlinks the 2 international locations.
The setback is the newest in a sequence of battlefield losses suffered by the junta as numerous insurgent teams push the navy again throughout the nation amid the nation’s three-year civil conflict that was sparked by the junta’s coup in February 2021.
The clashes began at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Thai troopers maintaining watch alongside the river and native residents mentioned. The struggle centered across the customs home on the bridge because the rebels apparently had been intent on wiping out the remaining junta troops, they mentioned.
“The KNU opened the cost first, the junta troops fought again,” a Thai soldier who requested to not be named due to the sensitivity informed RFA.
A number of days in the past, the junta introduced “Operation Aung Zeya,” geared toward retaking Myawaddy, a key metropolis on a significant buying and selling route with Thailand.
Because the solar rose Saturday morning, the Myanmar Air Power deployed a number of sorties of Y-12, MiG-29 and MI-35 assault helicopters amid periodic exchanges of gunfire. Some residents on the bridge watched the planes with binoculars as a couple of strayed rifle bullets whistled by, prompting them to duck.
Smoke billowed into the sky following every artillery shell and bomb explosion.
The casualties on each Karen and junta troopers in addition to civilians weren’t instantly identified.
An ambulance was seen driving out and in of the neighborhood close to Thailand’s Yepu Hill overlooking the casinos in Myawaddy, whereas a number of hundred individuals dwelling close to the river had been moved by truck to a livestock ranch for security.
Thailand’s international ministry mentioned it was carefully monitoring the scenario with Thai safety businesses on the bottom on excessive alert.
“Thailand has been and can proceed to supply additional humanitarian help if mandatory and can do our utmost to make sure the scenario alongside the Thai-Myanmar border space returns to normalcy,” Nikorndej Balankura, the ministry spokesman mentioned in an announcement.
