The Karen National Union (KNU), based in the mountains of eastern Myanmar, said today (27) that it launched an offensive this morning and captured a government base on the Thai-Myanmar border in the east.
The bloody crackdown by the military has caused turmoil in Myanmar since demonstrations sparked by the February 1 coup by the military’s arrest of civilian government members, including Ung San Suu Kyi. Opposition to the junta has blossomed across the country, with a number of armed ethnic groups that have been fighting the government for decades to gain independence responding.
The Karen National Union (KNU), which has been fighting government forces in its own territory in the east for weeks, broke out this morning in Karen State, near the Salween River, and residents in Thailand reported hearing gunfire and explosions on the other side of the border in Burma.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee, head of foreign affairs for the Karen National Union, told AFP that the fighting began at 5 a.m. this morning when they captured a government military camp.
When the Karen National Union took a government base in March, the Burmese junta launched several nighttime airstrikes, marking the second time in more than 20 years that government forces have launched an air assault on Karen State.
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