MYAWADDY – A Myanmar rebel group has withdrawn its troops from a town along the Thai border following a counteroffensive by soldiers of the ruling junta from whom the rebels had this month wrested the key trading post, an official said on April 24.
"KNLA troops will ... destroy the junta troops and their back-up troops who marched to Myawaddy," Saw Taw Nee told Reuters, referring to the group's armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, one of Myanmar's oldest ethnic fighting forces.Many of those civilians have since returned, the Thai government has said, adding that it had also urged Myanmar to keep the fighting from spilling across the border.
The junta, which has mounted a counter-offensive to retake Myawaddy, was able to enter the area with the help of a regional militia that had stood aside when the KNU laid siege to Myawaddy early in April, according to Saw Taw Nee.