Borders headquarters in Thailand seized Ethnic Armed, Myanmar Military Launches Air Raid

JAKARTA - The ethnic armed Karen National Union (KNU) announced the success of capturing the Myanmar military base on the Thai border on Tuesday, April 27 morning.

Hours later, Myanmar's military regime forces launched airstrikes against Karen villages in the area, in retaliation.

On Tuesday morning, Brigade 5 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the ethnic armed KNU military wing, seized and then destroyed a regime base in the Thaw Le Hta area, Mutraw District, Karen State, known in Burmese as Hpapun.

The base is located on the Salween River, opposite Mae Sam Laep Village, Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand. About seven Myanmar soldiers were seen fleeing during the raids by Karen forces, the Karen Information Center reported.

In the afternoon, at around 1 p.m., the Myanmar military regime launched an airstrike near the village of Dagwe (Dagwin in Burmese), about 10 miles north of Thaw Le Hta, according to the KNLA Brigade 5 Padoh Mahn Mahn.

"The bombing in the area near the village is very concerning for the people who live there," said Padoh Mahn Mahn, launching Myanmar Now, Wednesday, April 28.

There were also reports of Myanmar military airstrikes on the village of Bwa Der, also in Brigade 5. Further details on the airstrikes, including those regarding casualties and the number of displaced persons, were not available at the time of reporting.

Mae Sam Laep is a strategic point along the Thailand-Myanmar border, in terms of transportation and delivery of humanitarian aid, with a river port where supplies have been sent to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in KNU-controlled areas.

However, another KNLA Brigade 5 spokesman, Saw Kler Doh told the Karen Information Center Tuesday's attack on Thaw Le Hta was carried out in response to regime forces' shelling of ships along the Salween River.

The attack on the Thaw Le Hta military post marks the second time since the February 1 coup, the KNLA 5th Brigade under the ethnic KNU armed forces, has successfully seized the junta base of the Myanmar military regime forces.

In response to fighting in Thaw Le Hta on Tuesday, Thai authorities evacuated hundreds of Thai villagers from Mae Sam Laep and closed the port.

Before Tuesday's fighting, this stretch of the Thai-Myanmar border area along the Salween River had seen military tensions escalate in recent times.

On April 23, Myanmar military regime forces stationed across the river from another village in Thailand - Tha Hta Fung - opened warning shots on board a civilian boat carrying Thai border patrol officers, the Bangkok Post reported. A Thai government official later described the incident as a misunderstanding.

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