Over 530 residents of Myawaddy Township, Karen State, fled their homes due to airstrikes carried out by the Myanmar Air Force and crossed the riverine border into Phop Phra District of Tak Province, Thailand, on Friday.
“The whole village had to run as we heard the sound of gunfire,” a Myawaddy resident now sheltering in Thailand and receiving assistance from the Thai Army told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Karen State media reported no casualties from the airstrikes.
The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) seized the regime’s Bayintnaung outpost in southern Myawaddy on Thursday. Myawaddy is located 81 miles (130 km) east of the Karen State capital Hpa-an, and across the Myanmar-Thailand border from Tak Province.
The KNLA told DVB that 27 regime troops defending the Bayintnaung outpost also fled into Thailand. The outpost is located on a hill in southern Myawaddy overlooking the Wawlay strategic outpost, which is under regime control.
A frontline source in Karen State told DVB that 18 regime troops were killed and 11 were injured by the KNLA when it captured the regime’s Baledo outpost in Kawkareik Township of Myawaddy District on May 23. Kawkareik is located 26 miles (41 km) west of Myawaddy and 55 miles (88 km) east of Hpa-an.
Over 62 regime troops fled across the border into Thailand’s Tak Province, the source added. “If we can clear regime troops from the border, it will be safer for us to advance further,” a resistance member in Hlaingbwe Township told DVB.
The KNLA captured the regime’s Maw Phoe Kay outpost in Hlaingbwe, which is located 182 meters from the Thaung Yin River along the Myanmar-Thailand border, on May 19. Hlaingbwe is located 23 miles (37 km) north of Hpa-an and 75-101 miles (120-162 km) northwest of Kawkareik and Myawaddy.
The KNLA-led resistance forces have also seized control of the Maela (Maw Kawelay), Pulutu, Khaleday, Takhawbikhi, Mawphathu outposts, as well as the Talel strategic outpost, last month. All are located in Hlaingbwe along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
Over 2,000 residents of Sonesimyaing – near the headquarters of the pro-regime Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) – Ukarihta, Taungni, Thebawboe, and Wamihta villages have fled their homes due to fighting between the KNLA and regime forces in the area since May 21.
Paul Greening, an independent observer who monitors the Myanmar-Thailand border, told DVB that the KNLA will soon rid the entire border zone of regime outposts. This means its political wing, the Karen National Union (KNU), will administer the Karen State portion of the 1,501 mile (2,416 km) long Myanmar border with Thailand.
An aid worker along the border told DVB that the pro-regime Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), which was rebranded as the Karen National Army (KNA) last year, has not offered any support to stop the regime outposts from falling to Karen resistance forces in Hlaingbwe Township.
Last year, the BGF allowed regime forces to take back an outpost 12 days after it was seized by Karen resistance forces in Myawaddy. The BGF controls most of the vital border town of Myawaddy, including Shwe Kokko, which is located 15 miles (24 km) north of Myawaddy along the Myanmar-Thailand border.
“The current situation is a response to the military’s ongoing invasion of our territories and human rights violations, especially the daily bombing and shelling of our people,” Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the KNU spokesperson, told DVB.
