Junta responds with bombing after Karen fighters attack camp near Thailand-Myanmar border

Karen National Liberation Army battalions have blockaded and launched attacks on an army base near Hlaingbwe Township’s Kha Lel Day village in Karen State, provoking a retaliatory airstrike on Monday. The junta camp is on a hill northeast of the village and just over two miles west of the Thaungyin (Moei) River, which forms part of the border between Thailand and Myanmar. The area, part of Hpa-An District, falls within territory claimed by Brigade 7 of the KNLA, the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar’s oldest ethnic political organisation. KNLA fighters had been carrying out assaults in the area for a day when a junta fighter jet reportedly dropped four bombs around noon on Monday, according to the KNU’s Karen Information Centre and other sources within the group. “The junta aircraft dropped four bombs,” a senior KNU official confirmed. “It’s a large camp, and we are still fighting.”Thai media outlets claimed that the KNLA battalions had struck the junta forces using drones the fierce clashes around the camp. As the fighting continued, some 40 civilians from Hlaingbwe Township—primarily women, children, and the elderly—crossed the Thaungyin River into Tak Province, Thailand to escape the fighting, according to social media posts by Thai nationals in the area.The same social media posts claimed two Thai military aircraft could be seen over the border on a patrol fight around noon on the day of the battle. Fresh fighting broke out between Karen forces and the Myanmar military in mid-December 2024 when an alliance of forces led by the KNLA’s Brigade 5, which operates in Mutraw or Hpapun District, north of Brigade 7’s territory. Brigade 5 fighters recaptured Manerplaw, Hlaingbwe Township, the site of the KNU’s historic headquarters, from the Myanmar military on December 17. Taking over the site, which is within Brigade 7 territory, brought them closer to Hpa-An, the junta’s administrative capital and base of military operations in the state. The KNU, KNLA, the affiliated Karen National Defence Organization (KNDO), and Brigade 7 all maintain headquarters in Hpa-An District. The seven brigade territories of the KNLA, corresponding to the seven districts over which the KNU claims administrative authority, span Karen State as well as parts of Mon State, Tanintharyi Region, and eastern Bago Region. Brigade 7 forces seized the Pulu Tu outpost—also called Point 1248—which housed the junta’s Infantry Battalion 31 base near Paingkyon Town, Karen State on March 14 before launching attacks on another junta outpost. According to a senior KNU official, the KNLA’s recent attacks on junta outposts are consistent with the KNU’s policy of preventing the Myanmar military from establishing any presence in the areas under their authority. “This policy has been in place for a long time,” the official said. “While other brigades have been carrying out attacks for some time, Brigade 7 has been the one actively making it happen over the past three months.” A map indicating the sites of ongoing clashes

Junta responds with bombing after Karen fighters attack camp near Thailand-Myanmar border

The attacks on the junta camp, inside the territory of Brigade 7 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), followed other recent gains by Karen forces in the area including Brigade 5’s recapture of a historic headquarters in December

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