Myanmar rebels raise flag at seized junta base

STORY: Myanmar resistance fighters hoisted their own banner at a newly captured army base on Monday as a senior rebel commander vowed to hold the strategic area near the Thai border.

The key trading town of Myawaddy was taken by fighters linked to the armed ethnic Karen National Union – or KNU – less than a week ago.

Its fall marked another battlefield loss for the powerful military regime that seized control in 2021 from an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains in detention.

Simmering anger against the junta has turned into a nationwide armed resistance movement.

Since October, the army has lost control of key areas near its borders with both India and China to a loose coalition of allied resistance forces.

“We win in every way, step by step, but it will take time.”

Saw Taw Nee is a spokesperson for the KNU.

“We need to have a kind of coordination with other groups because in our country, so many groups and so many differences but we’re trying for how we take the coordination to defeat the military. Now we are trying hard. Even our Karen people, so many groups but it doesn’t matter, we will take time and we will be united.”

The loss of Myawaddy at the Thai border could further dent trade revenue for the junta.

A spokesman for the military government did not answer calls from Reuters on Monday.

The junta's leader said in a speech last month the forces fighting the military were "destroying the path towards forming a Union based on democratic values and federalism".

While the rebels celebrated Monday, Reuters reporters in Myawaddy could hear air strikes as fighting raged on the front lines about 25 miles to the west…

where junta reinforcements were trying to retake the area.