Strategic junta camp near Thai-Myanmar border falls to KNU Brigade 7 forces

Karen National Union (KNU) troops captured a strategically important Myanmar army camp near the country’s border with Thailand on Wednesday, a senior KNU officer has confirmed. The camp, positioned on a hill northeast of the village of Ta Le in Karen State’s Hlaingbwe Township, fell after five days of fighting, the officer said. Ta Le is located about 25 miles east of the town of Hlaingbwe and just five miles from the Moei River separating Myanmar and Thailand. Infantry Battalion (IB) 24 troops stationed at the camp started coming under attack from the KNU’s Brigade 7 on the night of May 9. They returned fire from within the camp for the next four days, but on the fifth day, Wednesday, they finally retreated, the KNU officer told Myanmar Now. Last week, allied anti-regime forces led by the KNU’s Brigade 3 seized the main base of the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 598 in Bago Region’s Shwegyin Township. Three days later, however, the regime recaptured the base after sending large numbers of reinforcements. The Ta Le camp in Hlaingbwe Township is not likely to meet a similar fate, according to the KNU officer. “They may conduct airstrikes, but they are not currently in a position to launch a ground counteroffensive,” he said, noting that the road to Ta Le is long and vulnerable to ambush attacks by regime opponents. KNU Brigade 7 did not begin launching attacks on junta forces until December of last year, when it joined Brigade 5 troops in the fight to recapture the former KNU headquarters of Manerplaw. Since then, it has seized five other junta positions in areas under its control, including the Ta Le camp, said the KNU officer. The other positions are the Point 1246 IB 31 base, the Khalelday base, the Maw Pha Thu base, and the Laypanarde base (also known as Ta Kaw Bee Kwee). Brigade 7 has been clearing junta bases in line with the group’s policy that no military presence should exist within KNU-administered areas, he added.

Strategic junta camp near Thai-Myanmar border falls to KNU Brigade 7 forces

The camp is just the latest Myanmar army position to be captured near the border in recent months

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