Myanmar rebels say they have repelled junta push to take back border town

MAE SOT, Thailand — A resistance group fighting Myanmar's military rule said on April 14 that its fighters repelled an attempt by junta troops to advance on the key town of Myawaddy along the Thai border that was seized by the rebels last week.

Reinforcements of junta forces have been trying to advance on Myawaddy for days, but were pushed back in a battle about 40km away, said Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union (KNU), in an interview.

"It is not easy to come here. They face a lot of difficulty," he told Reuters, saying KNU's forces had been "blocking and intercepting" the junta troops.

The KNU information could not be independently confirmed. A spokesperson for the military junta that seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup did not answer calls from Reuters.

A coalition of anti-junta forces led by KNU wrested the border town of Myawaddy, adjacent to Thailand, from military control on April 11.

Fighting took place on April 12 between the villages of Kawkareik and Kaw Nwet along the main Asian Highway 1 leading west from the Thai border, Saw said.

The KNU spokesman said information received from the front line put the junta's toll of deaths and injuries from the fighting at around 100. "We know that they suffered a loss of a one-armed carrier and a military truck," he said.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the powerful military deposed an elected civilian government, triggering widespread protests it sought to crush with force.

Simmering anger against the junta turned into a nationwide armed resistance movement that is now increasingly operating in coordination with established ethnic rebel groups to challenge the military across large parts of Myanmar.

Saw said the resistance "will take time". "We need to have a kind of coordination with other groups... to defeat the military," he said.

The KNU spokesman said there were also challenges working in a broad anti-junta coalition.

"We are still in the process of how to negotiate, how to come together, and how to move forward among our Karen groups," he said, referring to members of the ethnic group residing primarily in Kayin state.

Saw said the immediate concern for KNU is the more than one million displaced people within its territories, and called on the international community, including neighbouring Thailand, to provide support.

"We really need to work together in the future more and more on this issue," he said.

Saw urged Myanmar's junta to see its recent military setbacks as a sign that it should hand back power to the people.

"Please don't waste time any more," he said. "This is the time, and a good opportunity, to listen to people first."

ALSO READ: Exodus to Thailand continues after fall of key Myanmar border town