Fighting escalates in eastern Myanmar as army holds out against resistance push on key border town

BANGKOK (AP) — Fighting appeared to be escalating in Myanmar on Wednesday as guerrilla fighters from the Karen ethnic minority and pro-democracy forces battle soldiers holding on to a major trading town on the border with Thailand, witnesses said.

The fall of Myawaddy, which is also Myanmar’s most active trade crossing with Thailand, would be another major setback in the army’s war against resistance forces seeking to topple the military-run government.

The fighting has alarmed also officials in Bangkok, who fear it may drive large numbers of people across the border. Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Tuesday that Thailand can accommodate about 100,000 people in safe areas on a temporary basis.

Myawaddy lies just across the Moei River from the Mae Sot district, which has served in the past to shelter villagers fleeing the fighting.

Despite its advantage in arms and manpower, Myanmar’s army had been on the defensive since last October, when an alliance of three ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country’s northeast. Resistance forces since then have captured major swaths of territory in northern Shan state on the border with China, made significant gains in Rakhine state in the west, and continue to pressure the army elsewhere.

A drone attack last week by a resistance group loyal to the National Unity Government, an umbrella organization for pro-democracy forces, at the airport in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw. Little damage was reported but it highlighted the vulnerability of the military government, which seized power in 2021 by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and now finds itself embroiled in a civil war.

The Karen National Union — the leading political body for the