Irrawaddy-May 24

The Karen National Union (KNU) says Myanmar’s military has been seriously depleted, saying the regime has not tried to retake a strategic camp seized on the Thai border last week. The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allied resistance forces seized the strategic camp in Karen State on May 18, despite facing heavy airstrikes. The battle for Thay Baw Boe camp in Myawaddy Township lasted eight hours and a junta battalion in Falu, about 25km away, did not send reinforcements.

“In the past, they would send reinforcements but on May 18 fighting, junta soldiers sat on a pagoda and did nothing, as if they had nothing to do with their colleagues being attacked,” said an official from the KNU, the political wing of the KNLA. Thay Baw Boe had been held by the military since the early 1990s and used as a staging area to reinforce combat troops fighting rebels near the Thai border. The strategically important camp was normally led by a battalion commander and held around 30 to 50 soldiers. The KNU said five junta soldiers, including a deputy battalion commander, were killed and seven captured along with weapons. KNLA commanders said there have been no reinforcements in the area since early March. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-weakening-karen-rebels.html