Hundreds of Myanmar junta troops surrender as KNU captures base near Myawaddy

The Karen National Union (KNU) says it captured a key military base just west of the Thai-Myanmar border town of Myawaddy on Friday following the surrender of nearly 500 junta troops. In a statement, the group said that troops from Brigade 6 of its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), had taken control of the junta’s tactical camp at Thin Gan Nyi Naung, a village located less than eight miles west of Myawaddy’s downtown core. A total of 477 junta troops, including 67 officers, turned themselves in as part of the mass surrender—the largest ever recorded in KNU territory, according to the statement. Military vehicles and more than 100 pieces of heavy artillery were also captured, it added. The camp’s commanders reportedly agreed to hand over control of the camp without a fight in order to prevent further casualties among soldiers and their families. Some 140 family members of the soldiers, including 59 wives—many armed by the military to act as unpaid security guards—also surrendered, according to the KNU statement. Relatives of junta troops from the Thin Gan Nyi Naung tactical camp who surrendered en masse on April 5 (KNU) The move came a day after anti-regime fighters surrounded the camp, resulting in fierce clashes and junta airstrikes carried out in a bid to prevent it from falling to the KNLA-led forces. “We have captured the tactical hill and acquired numerous weapons and vehicles. It is confirmed that the [Thin Gan Nyi Naung] tactical camp is now under our control,” a member of an allied armed group told Myanmar Now. Thin Gan Nyi Naung is one of several villages in the area where junta troops from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 356 and 357 are stationed. The village was reportedly gutted by fire after being hit by airstrikes, while more than 100 homes were also destroyed in Whayt Shan, another village in the area, according to sources. The KNLA and its allies began targeting LIB 355, 356, and 357 troops near Thin Gan Nyi Naung on March 7. Within days, they had captured the LIB 355 camp and the village’s police station, as well as a former KNLA camp that had been occupied by regime forces for more than 30 years. A regime air attack carried out on March 8 killed two men in their 70s and injured at least eight others in the village, but failed to repel the anti-junta forces. Thin Gan Nyi Naung is also where five regime military officers, including a brigadier general, were killed in late January when their helicopter was shot down en route to the LIB 356 camp. It was unclear whether the KNLA and its allies would advance on Myawaddy now that they have consolidated their position just west of the town, which serves as Myanmar’s major gateway to neighbouring Thailand. Meanwhile, skirmishes continue to break out in Kawkareik, an important transport hub located on the Asian Highway some 20 miles west of Thin Gan Nyi Naung. The town has been largely deserted since anti-regime forces began attacking junta troops stationed there late last year. Troops from the regime’s Infantry Battalions 97, 230, 231 and Artillery Battalion 321 are still present in Kawkareik, but last week resistance forces claimed that they were in control of 70 percent of the town.

Hundreds of Myanmar junta troops surrender as KNU captures base near Myawaddy

The capture of the Thin Gan Nyi Naung tactical camp brings anti-regime forces within eight miles of the country’s main gateway to Thailand

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