Myanmar troops retreat as rebels declare control over key border town
About 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge to Thailand on Thursday after a days-long assault by the anti-junta resistance.
About 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge to Thailand on Thursday after a days-long assault by the anti-junta resistance, which declared it had won control of the critical border town of Myawaddy, the latest in a string of rebel wins.
Myanmar’s military-run government is battling insurgencies on several fronts and has suffered a series of defeats in frontier areas since last October, when rebel groups launched a coordinated offensive near the Chinese border.
The impoverished Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil after the military deposed an elected civilian government in a 2021 coup, setting off a nationwide armed resistance that is now operating alongside some long-established ethnic rebel groups such as the Karen National Union (KNU).
“Today KNU-led joint resistance forces captured the remaining military base in Myawaddy,” Kyaw Zaw, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s National Unity Government, told Reuters.
The body is a shadow administration of ousted lawmakers and anti-junta groups.
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