Deadly clashes continue between Myanmar troops and Karen rebels near Thai border
More than 1,000 resistance forces were involved in a fierce battle against Myanmar junta troops at a Karen town near the border with Thailand.
Reports said many people were killed and injured in the armed clashes that have continued for over two weeks in a battle for the control of Kawkareik, a town in Myanmar’s Karen State.
The exact number of casualties could not be independently confirmed.
Kawkareik sits on the road to a major border crossing at Mae Sot district, Tak province, in western Thailand.
More than 1,000 resistance fighters from Division 6 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People's Defence Force (PDF) attacked military bases around Kawkareik, killing and injuring many junta troops, reports said.
The KNLA siege of the town prompted aerial bombings with MiG-29 and helicopters, as well as mortar gun shelling, on the resistance forces. The junta troops have failed to retake control of the seized area from the resistance forces, the reports said.
Citing the rebel forces, The Irrawaddy online media outlet reported on Wednesday that at least 25 Myanmar junta troops have been killed in two weeks of clashes with the KNLA and other resistance groups in Kawkareik.
It quoted local residents as saying that the junta aimed to retake the township and it was targeting civilian areas with shelling and airstrikes.
Some residents told The Nation in a telephone interview that recent shelling had damaged four houses and a temple, which also left 10 people dead, including a monk, and many others injured.
Some sources on the Thai side of the border said that the recent clashes in the Karen State could have something to do with the Myanmar junta’s plan to reopen the border checkpoint at Myawaddy, across the border from Mae Sot, on January 1.
