Airstrikes were carried out on Thephyu village, west of Mawtaung in Tanintharyi Region, on Nov. 16 – two days after the town was seized by resistance forces led by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) on Nov. 14.
“They sent reinforcements with helicopters. So far, they have around 500 military personnel,” Padoh Saw Eh Nar, the Karen National Union (KNU) secretary for Myeik and Dawei districts, told DVB.
Mawtaung is located 248 miles (399 km) southeast of the Tanintharyi Region capital Dawei along the Myanmar-Thailand border. The regime launched a counteroffensive to retake the town on Nov. 15.
Over 40 regime troops were detained by KNLA Brigade 4 during fighting in Mawtaung. Over 40 other military personnel fled into Thailand, according to resistance forces.
Sources from Naypyidaw told DVB that the regime is investigating the military commander of the Coastal Region Military Command (RMC) headquarters Major General Kyaw Kyaw Han in Myeik on Nov. 15. Myeik is 109 miles (175 km) west of Mawtaung and 152 miles (244 km) south of Dawei.
“There is a plan to appoint a new regional commander if the Coastal RMC can’t get back Mawtaung,” a source from Naypyidaw told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
Four military generals served as commanders at the Coastal RMC prior to Kyaw Kyaw Han since the military 2021 coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
Regime media reported that Min Aung Hlaing visited Karen and Mon states on Nov. 16 to meet with military officials, including the commander of Southeastern RMC.
The KNLA conducted an attack on the regime’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 224 in Mawtaung on Nov. 11. It seized the town 35 years after losing it to the Myanmar military in 1990.
Nearly 2,000 residents from Thephyu, Theinkhun and Chaung Nhit Pauk villages, which are located along the road connecting Theinkhun and Mawtaung, have been forced to flee into the neighboring Thailand’s Prachuap Khiri Khan Province due to daily airstrikes, according to residents.
Aid workers in Tanintharyi Region told DVB that they have been supporting residents displaced from their homes due to fighting in Mawtaung, who have sought temporary refuge in Thailand.
The Myeik-Mawtaung border trade route used for transporting goods from Myanmar into Thailand was closed on an unspecified date, according to residents.
The Mawtaung border gate was opened by the previous regime in Naypyidaw to improve trade with Thailand in May 2013.
