Fighting escalates in eastern Myanmar as army holds out against resistance push on key border town

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 79th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

BANGKOK — Fighting appeared to be escalating in Myanmar on Wednesday as guerrilla fighters from the Karen ethnic minority and pro-democracy forces battle soldiers holding on to a major trading town on the border with Thailand, witnesses said.

The fall of Myawaddy, which is also Myanmar's most active trade crossing with Thailand, would be another major setback in the army's war against resistance forces seeking to topple the military-run government.

The fighting has alarmed also officials in Bangkok, who fear it may drive large numbers of people across the border. Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Tuesday that Thailand can accommodate about 100,000 people in safe areas on a temporary basis.

Myawaddy lies just across the Moei River from the Mae Sot district, which has served in the past to shelter villagers fleeing the fighting.

Despite its advantage in arms and manpower, Myanmar's army had been on the defensive since last October, when an alliance of three ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country's northeast. Resistance forces since then have captured major swaths of territory in northern Shan state on the border with China, made significant gains in Rakhine state in the west, and continue to pressure the army elsewhere.

A drone attack last week by a resistance group loyal to the National Unity Government, an umbrella organization for pro-democracy forces, at the airport in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw. Little damage was reported but it highlighted the vulnerability of the military government, which seized power in 2021 by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and now finds itself embroiled in a civil war.

The Karen National Union -- the leading political body for the Karen ethnic minority -- said last week that its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, along with pro-democracy allies, had captured a regional army base at Thin Gan Nyi Naung on the road to Myawaddy.

More than 600 members of the security forces and their family members reportedly had surrendered.

A journalist covering the fighting in the area told The Associated Press that the pro-democracy fighters attacked the garrison of Infantry Battalion 275, about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of Myawaddy, on Tuesday night.

The military responded with aerial bombardments and shelling, the journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested by either warring side. He said the guerrillas also attacked the artillery battalion in Lay Kay Kaw, a small town in the southern part of Myawaddy township, on Wednesday.

Three residents of Myawaddy, who live near Infantry Battalion 275 garrison, told the AP by phone that they took shelter with other locals at Buddhist monasteries near there when fighting intensified on Tuesday.

The residents, said three fighter jets had been bombing the fighting areas and nearby villages, overnight and in the morning.

Two other residents living in Myawaddy, said some townspeople were fleeing into Mae Sot in Thailand, but many others were working as usual despite the fighting on the town's outskirts.

Another resident of Myawaddy said she crossed into Mae Sot on one of the Myanmar-Thailand friendship bridges on Tuesday to avoid the bombing and saw officers were still carrying out their jobs at the bridge. All the local residents spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of their safety.

The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar online news outlet, reported Tuesday that members of a Karen armed force who are not affiliated with the Karen National Union were guarding the bridges on the Myanmar side.

The Border Guard Force units in Kayin state are nominally affiliated with the military but announced last month they were cutting their ties and establishing themselves independently under the name of the Karen National Army.