Thailand’s military has reinforced security along a western border town with Myanmar, where anti-junta insurgents clashed with a weaker military that had suffered a series of defeats on the frontier.
Several Thai army trucks with roof-mounted machine guns patrolled the streets of Mae Sot while explosions and violent combat erupted across the border in Myawaddy, according to residents.
Fighting was still going on at Myawaddy, a strategically significant trading outpost that was attacked by the Karen National Union (KNU) and other anti-junta forces, Thai military officers informed local media.
The KNU said in a statement last week that its soldiers had stormed a junta camp close to Myawaddy, compelling about 600 security guards and their families to turn themselves in.
At least 2,000 people have been displaced within Myanmar by the latest round of fighting between the rebels and the military, according to civil society group Karen Peace Support Network.
Myanmar’s military, which took power in a 2021 coup after deposing an elected civilian government, has faced a series of setbacks against a loose alliance of ethnic rebel groups and a civilian militia movement.
Junta troops have already lost control of swathes of territory along Myanmar’s borders with Bangladesh, China, and India, with the military now facing its biggest test since first taking control of the former British colony in 1962.
The well-armed military has also depleted most of its battalions to below their recommended troop level following months of relentless fighting. It is now pushing a conscription law to recruit more soldiers.
