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Yangon (dpa) - Fighters from a rebel group in Myanmar have reportedly attacked and captured a military base on the border with Thailand.
Armed forces of the ethnic minority of the Karen ethnic group had attacked the army post early Tuesday morning, confirmed a spokesman for the resistance group Karen National Union (KNU) of the German press agency.
“The soldiers fled.
We don't yet know whether there were any deaths, ”said Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the chief of foreign affairs at the KNU.
"But we have taken the military post."
Eyewitnesses reported, according to The Irrawaddy newspaper, that they saw seven soldiers who had fled towards the jungle.
The base was reportedly burned down.
Videos on social networks showed flames and smoke rising up the Salween River from the Thaw Le Hta border post.
The river on the eastern border of the country separates the former Burma from neighboring Thailand.
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After the coup in early February, the military repeatedly carried out air strikes on ethnic minority areas, including the Karen.
"More than 24,000 Karen civilians fled into the jungle because the military attacked us from the air," said Padoh Saw Taw Nee.
"There are currently no air strikes, but fighter jets fly over the villages every day, so people do not dare to return."
Some of the armed groups in the multi-ethnic state, who have been fighting for more autonomy for decades, support the protests against the coup, which have been going on for months.
Thousands of people have already fled to neighboring Thailand as a result of the violence.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210427-99-367620 / 3
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