Myanmar rebel group withdraws from key town on Thai border after counteroffensive by junta soldiers

Following a counteroffensive by soldiers of the governing junta, from whom the rebels had taken control of the important trade post earlier this month, a rebel group in Myanmar withdrew its forces from a town near the Thai border, an official said on Wednesday.

The “temporary retreat” from the town of Myawaddy, according to a spokesman for the Karen National Union (KNU), occurred when junta forces returned to the strategically important territory, which serves as a conduit for more than $1 billion in yearly international commerce.

“KNLA troops will … destroy the junta troops and their back-up troops who marched to Myawaddy,” Saw Taw Nee told Reuters, referring to the group’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic fighting forces.

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As recently as Saturday, there had been fighting in Myawaddy, forcing 3,000 residents to evacuate as insurgents battled to free Myanmar junta forces who had been held up at a border bridge crossing for days.

The Thai administration has stated that many of those people have subsequently returned and that it has encouraged Myanmar to prevent the violence from spreading across the border.

Images shared on certain pro-junta social media platforms showed a few troops flying the Myanmar flag at a military facility that the rebel group had previously controlled and that the KNU had only taken control of a few days before.

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The junta, which has mounted a counter-offensive to retake Myawaddy, was able to enter the area with the help of a regional militia that had stood aside when the KNU laid siege to Myawaddy early in April, according to Saw Taw Nee.

Officials from the militia group, the Karen National Army, and the junta did not respond to telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment.

Three years after its coup ousted a democratically-elected civilian government, Myanmar’s junta is under unprecedented pressure, having lost control of a string of key frontier areas to rebel groups.