Karen fighters seize army base near border trade post in Myanmar’s southernmost region

Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) fighters captured a Myanmar army base on Monday near Htee Khee, an important trade post on the Thailand-Myanmar border in Tanintharyi Region’s Dawei Township, spokespersons for the KNLA said. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar’s oldest ethnic political organisation. According to a statement issued by the central executive committee of the KNU, the KNLA’s Brigade 4 took 48 soldiers of the army’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 103 into custody, including battalion commander Lt.-Col. Aung Hein, and seized 67 small and heavy weapons including a 60mm mortar. Vehicles travelling the Asia Highway in Kawkareik Township, Karen State in September 2023. (Photo: AFP) Htee Khee is one of six border trade posts on the 1,500-mile Thailand-Myanmar border. The others are Tachileik in eastern Shan State, Mese in Karenni (Kayah) State, Myawaddy in Karen (Kayin) State, and Kawthaung and Mawdaung in Tanintharyi Region. Myawaddy is the busiest of the Thailand-Myanmar border crossings, as measured by the number of people as well as the amount and value of goods moving over the border. The junta-controlled ministry of commerce’s accounting adds the value of its natural gas exports to the total value of Myanmar’s exports through Htee Khee, making it appear to generate more export revenue than it does. The junta’s loss of Htee Khee to anti-junta forces would not have as strong an effect on the revenue generated from exports as the loss of Myawaddy. Of the six border posts, only Kawthaung, Tachileik, and Mawdaung remain in the regime’s hands. Mese is under the control of Karenni resistance forces, and clashes between the KNLA and junta forces for control of Myawaddy and Htee Khee are ongoing. The KNLA’s Brigade 4 territory includes the Tanintharyi Region towns Myeik of Dawei, the regional capital, as well as most of the area that the military regime delineates as Dawei and Myeik districts. According to the KNU, troops from IB 103—normally based in Myeik under the Myanmar army’s Coastal Regional Military Command (RMC)—had initially deployed to outposts around 18 miles north of Htee Khee on the Thai border. Padoh Saw El Nah, secretary of the KNU for Brigade 4’s territory, told Myanmar Now that the same IB 103 troops then advanced to Htee Hta village near Htee Khee last week to reinforce a tactical hilltop base and fend off ongoing attacks by the KNLA’s Brigade 4. Six IB 103 soldiers were killed in attacks on the base by the KNLA’s Brigade 4 over the next week, the secretary said, before the troops surrendered to the KNLA on Monday. “They had no food, no water, no way out, and many of them were wounded. Their column couldn't advance, so they surrendered,” Padoh Saw El Nah added. The KNU says that the prisoners are currently being held and treated humanely in accordance with international law. “We will continue to adhere to the rules, regulations and policies established by the KNU. We will also ask those who surrendered for their opinions and act accordingly,” Padoh Saw El Nah said. The Tanintharyi Region-based news agency Dawei Watch reported in February 2023 that the members of the KNLA’s Brigade 4 co-owned Grand Htee Khee Valley and Shangri-La Htee Khee resorts near the town, along with the junta’s minister of ethnic affairs for Tanintharyi Region. A junta convoy intercepted by the KNLA and allied forces in February 2024 on the Dawei-Htee Khee road in Tanintharyi. (Photo: Supplied) In April of that year, fighters of KNLA Brigade 4’s Battalion 11 ambushed members of the anti-junta ethnic armed group Mon State Defence Force (MSDF) in the town of Bokepyin, Tanintharyi Region on the Andaman Sea coast. Two MSDF fighters were killed in the ambush and two went missing along with their weapons. The KNU’s central executive committee has yet to act on the complaint that the MSDF sent them about the incident. The KNLA’s Brigade 4 has said it will continue its fight against junta forces in Tanintharyi Region, but that Htee Khee remains under junta control. Padoh Saw El Nah confirmed that there are still troops deployed at numerous junta outposts in the area. “They are still stationed at the border and along Route 8,” he said, referring to a road running from Myeik to Payagyi, Bago Region. “As far as I can see, their battalion commanders don't want to fight anymore. As you know, their rank-and-file soldiers have to obey orders, but some of them have run away or surrendered because they didn't want to die.”

Karen fighters seize army base near border trade post in Myanmar’s southernmost region

48 junta soldiers surrendered a hilltop outpost to the the KNLA’s Brigade 4 near Htee Khee, the third Thailand-Myanmar border trade site targeted by anti-junta forces

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