A series of clashes recently broke out between the military and resistance forces fighting under the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)—the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU)—in Karen State’s Kawkareik town, which has been all but abandoned by its civilian population.
“Battles are breaking out on a daily basis inside Kawkareik,” a source within the KNU told Myanmar Now on Thursday.
The anti-junta allied forces led by the KNLA had established posts around the town at the time of reporting, but the military’s Infantry Battalion 97 still remained at its base in Kawkareik and another area base, called Yay Ku Kan.
The KNLA turned its focus to the junta presence in Kawkareik in early December, targeting bases including those along the strategic Asia Highway, which runs past Kawkareik to the Thai border.
While most of Kawkareik’s population has fled. . .
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