Myanmar troops under armed attack flee across border: Thai military

A group of Myanmar soldiers fled across the Thai border on Friday after an assault by an ethnic armed group ousted them from their base, Thailand’s military said. (AFP)

• A group of Myanmar soldiers fled across the Thai border on Friday after an assault by an ethnic armed group ousted them from their base, Thailand’s military said

BANGKOK: A group of Myanmar soldiers fled across the Thai border on Friday after an assault by an ethnic armed group ousted them from their base, Thailand’s military said.

Myanmar has been riven by civil war after the military seized power in a 2021 coup, with the junta fighting an array of armed ethnic organizations and pro-democracy partisans.

Fighters from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) attacked the Pulu Tu frontier military base in the early hours of Friday, the Thai military said.

“The Myanmar military defended the base but ultimately the KNLA successfully seized control,” it said in a statement.

“Several Myanmar soldiers were killed and some fled across the border into Thailand.”

The statement did not specify how many Myanmar soldiers had crossed the border into Thailand’s Tak province but said they had been “provided humanitarian assistance.”

KNLA forces seized the base around 3:00 am (2030 GMT Thursday), according to a spokesman for the organization’s political wing, the Karen National Union.

The KNLA fighters took the base after Myanmar troops “abandoned their guns and ran into Thailand,” it said.

A spokesman for the Myanmar junta could not be reached for comment.

The Pulu Tu base is around 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the border town of Myawaddy, a vital trade node that became a battleground between anti-junta fighters and the military last year.

The region is also the epicenter of the scam-center boom in Myanmar, where thousands of foreign nationals trawl the Internet for victims to trick with romance or investment schemes.

Many workers say they were trafficked into the centers and thousands have been repatriated through Thailand in recent weeks under mounting international pressure.

The KNLA has been fighting for decades to establish greater autonomy for the Karen people living along Myanmar’s southeastern flank.

It is among dozens of ethnic armed organizations, already active before the coup, which have proved the most effective fighting forces against the junta.

While the military has suffered substantial territorial losses, analysts say it remains strong in Myanmar’s heartland, with an air force capable of inflicting punishing losses on its adversaries.

The junta issued a conscription order a year ago to boost its embattled ranks, allowing it to call up all men aged 18-35 for military service.