Myanmar rebels battle junta soldiers at Thailand border

FIGHTING RAGED at Myanmar’s eastern frontier with Thailand Saturday, both governments said, forcing 3,000 civilians to flee as rebels fought to flush out junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing.

Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side of the frontier on April 11, a blow to a wellequipped military struggling to govern and facing a test of battlefield credibility.

Witnesses on the Thai and Myanmar sides of the border said they heard explosions and heavy machine gun fire near a strategic bridge from late on Friday into Saturday.

Thai broadcaster NBT said resistance forces used 40-mm machine guns and dropped 20 bombs from drones to target an estimated 200 junta soldiers who had retreated from a coordinated rebel assault on Myawaddy and army posts since April 5.

Myanmar’s state-run MRTV said the militias and ethnic minority rebels had used excessive shelling and bombing to attack junta troops, and government forces had responded with air strikes to try to maintain stability. It said rebels retreated having sustained many losses.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he was closely monitoring the unrest and his country was ready to provide humanitarian assistance if necessary.

According to figures compiled by Thailand's military and the provincial authority, 3,027 people had on Saturday crossed the border to seek temporary refuge in the town of Mae Sot.

Myanmar’s military is facing one of its biggest challenges, caught up in multiple, low-intensity conflicts.

AP People cross the Moei river as they escape from Myanmar’s Myawaddy township into Thailand’s Mae Sot town on Saturday amid fighting between rebels and soldiers.