Thailand on alert as rebel group seizes Myanmar base near border

AFP news agency quoted a resident as saying that fighting between the Myanmar army and the ethnic armed group Karen National Union (KNU) began around Myawaddy town in Myanmar's Karen state on April 9, forcing many people to flee to Mae Sot town in Thailand.

"There was fighting all night and all morning," one resident told AFP on April 10. "We could hear artillery and explosions from where we live. Planes were flying over. My mother and other siblings fled to Mae Sot this morning. Now I am guarding our house with my uncle."

KNU spokesman Padoh Saw Taw Nee confirmed to AFP that the group's gunmen clashed with the Myanmar military again around Myawaddy on April 10.

Members of a Myanmar militia hold weapons as they walk towards Myanmar, seen from Thailand's Mae Sot district on April 11.

Earlier, the KNU announced on April 6 that it had seized a military base about 10 kilometers west of Myawaddy, and that more than 600 soldiers, police and their families had surrendered. The Myanmar military government did not respond to a request for comment on the KNU's statement about the surrender at that military base.

Also on April 10, a Mae Sot resident told AFP that they saw eight Thai military vehicles heading towards the Thai-Myanmar border on the evening of April 9.

Some Thai soldiers are taking positions below the Friendship Bridge that connects Mae Sot with the commercial hub of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side. Above the soldiers, hundreds of people are walking across the bridge and into safety in Thailand.

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An unnamed Thai soldier said the fighting was the most intense he had heard in 15 years in the border area with Karen state.

In addition, Jafal Sweardik, 14, who recently arrived in Thailand with his family from near Myawaddy, said firecrackers and gunfire had cast a shadow over the Eid al-Fitr festival at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The number of migrants entering Thailand from Myanmar has increased to around 4,000 a day in recent days, up from the usual figure of around 1,900, an immigration official told AFP.

The official added that authorities are increasing the number of immigration officials to handle the possibility of further arrivals in the coming days.

As conflicts continue in Myanmar, Thailand's foreign minister said on April 9 that the kingdom was ready to take in 100,000 people fleeing the conflict, according to AFP.

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