Amid ongoing clashes near the border town of Myawaddy, Karen State, the junta air force bombed a village on Wednesday within the territory of Brigade 7 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
Hti Kaw Htaw, the village in Myawaddy Township that came under attack, is close to the command centre of the Karen National Union (KNU)—a Karen ethnic political organisation of which the KNLA is the armed wing.
Hti Kaw Htaw is also located just six miles from the Shwe Kokko new city development project outside Myawaddy, which is chiefly financed by private foreign investment, especially from China and Cambodia, and populated by foreign workers.
Clashes between the junta and KNLA forces had intensified since morning.
The KNLA and allied anti-junta forces attacked and seized two outposts held by a Border Guard Force under military command near Hti Kaw Htaw in the morning, and junta aircraft arrived shortly thereafter and bombed the area, according to a member of the resistance forces.
A local villager also said junta airstrikes had forced residents of Hti Kaw Htaw and nearby areas to flee to the Thaungyin (Moei) River along the Thai-Myanmar border.
“Battles are breaking out all over Karen State, but they only just started bombing Brigade 7 territories now,” the villager said.
Serious fighting occurred on the same day in other village tracts of Myawaddy Township—such as Me Ka Nei and Thingan Nyi Naung—as well as in Kawkareik Township, to the west. Soldiers of Light Infantry Division 44—based south of Myawaddy in the town of Lay Kay Kaw—shelled the surrounding area using heavy artillery.
An alliance of revolutionary forces under the command of the KNLA had attacked junta targets in Myawaddy and Kawkareik townships on Monday, after which fighting quickly escalated.
Junta bases in the Myawaddy Commercial Zone and the town of Kyondo, Kawkareik Township, as well as the police station in Thingan Nyi Naung, all came under attack by the KNLA and allied forces.
The military conducted airstrikes on Me Ka Nei between Monday and Wednesday, forcing over 1,000 local residents to seek refuge near the Thai border. Photos and videos circulated online showing hundreds of people who had been displaced from their homes.
A man involved in the border trade said that fighting near the Taw Naw Waterfall on the Asia Highway–which connects Myawaddy and Kawkareik–had forced commercial trucks to turn back.
“Battles broke out in Thingan Nyi Naung and all the vehicles had to turn back yesterday. The Asia Highway is blocked again today,” the border trader said.
On March 28, an alliance of revolutionary forces led by the KNLA attacked and seized a junta base on the Salween River at the Thai-Myanmar border, leading to clashes in southern Karen State.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesperson for the KNU, commented on the constant clashes occurring in Karen State in recent weeks.
“It is undeniable that continuous battles have been breaking out this month. It’s too soon to determine if the junta’s attacks are targeting us purposely, but the commander-in-chief of the military council himself did say that they would take action against us,” he added.
The day before the Salween River base fell to resistance forces, at Armed Forces Day celebrations in Naypyidaw, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech that the military would take decisive action against the publicly mandated National Unity Government, the People’s Defence Forces, and ethnic armed organisations who aided them.
