Border town ‘out in the open’ as ethnic army captures Myanmar junta camp

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Insurgent forces in eastern Myanmar captured a junta base close to the Thai border on Thursday morning, a Karen National Union spokesperson told Radio Free Asia.

The Karen National Liberation Army, or KNLA, attacked a junta camp near Kayin state’s Lay Kay Kaw village with heavy weapons, capturing prisoners and seizing weapons, Saw Taw Nee said.

The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union. It is Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed organization, fighting since the 1950s for autonomy and territory. Since 2021, when the country’s military seized power in a coup that toppled a democratically elected civilian administration, the KNLA has stepped up fighting for control of Kayin and Mon states in southeast Myanmar.

KNLA troops pose with weapons seized during the capture of the junta’s Swe Taw Kone military base near Kayin state’s Lay Kay Kaw village in Myawaddy township, on Oct. 17, 2024. (Facebook: Cobra Column Sub-Division 3)

The junta base captured Thursday is only 14 kilometers (eight miles) from trade hub and border town Myawaddy, where KNLA forces briefly captured the Infantry Battalion 275 camp for two weeks in April before losing control to junta forces.

The Swe Taw Kone camp acts as a strategic stronghold to help junta forces retain their grip on Myawaddy, Saw Taw Nee said.

“According to the military, without the defense this camp provides for this important part of their territory, Myawaddy’s out in the open,” he said. “From this camp, junta forces have frequently fired at Thin Gan Nyi Naung and villages surrounding the Asian Highway, causing a lot of destruction and injuries.”

Out of the hundreds of soldiers stationed at the camp, many, including a commander, escaped during the attack, he said. The KNLA and its allies are working to track them down, capture them and clear the area.

Saw Taw Nee declined to comment on how many junta soldiers had been captured during the attack.

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Swe Taw Kone was the main camp providing infantry support to the junta during the battles that took place near Myawaddy, he said, adding that it took allied KNLA forces more than three months to capture it.

The junta has not released any information about Swe Taw Kone and attempts by RFA to reach junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun were unsuccessful.

The KNLA has warned allies and nearby residents of possible airstrikes, saying that junta planes have been scouting the area since it took the camp on Thursday morning.

Lay Kay Kaw village is the site of one of dozens of camps along the Thai-Myanmar border housing civilians displaced by flooding, raids, razed villages and airstrikes. The camp is one of several in the region that have been targeted in junta bombings.

Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.