Fighting raged at Myanmar's eastern frontier with Thailand on Saturday, witnesses, media and Thailand's government said, forcing about 200 civilians to flee as rebels pressed to flush out junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing. - REUTERS
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00:00 Fighting between the Myanmar junta and rebels scaled up on Saturday in Miyawadi, a town
00:06 close to the Thai border. That's according to witnesses, media and Thailand's government.
00:12 Rebels were pressed to flush out junta troops holed up for days at the bridge border crossing.
00:18 In this video obtained by Reuters, a helicopter appeared to get hit. Thick black smoke was
00:24 seen rising in another video. Several Thai media outlets said about 200 civilians had
00:30 crossed the border to seek temporary refuge in Thailand.
00:34 Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Miyawadi on
00:39 the Myanmar side of the frontier on April 11.
00:44 It was a big blow to a well-equipped military that is struggling to govern and is now facing
00:50 a critical test of its battlefield credibility. Thai broadcaster MBT in a post on social media
00:57 platform X said resistance forces used 40mm machine guns and dropped 20 bombs from drones.
01:05 They targeted an estimated 200 junta soldiers who had retreated from a coordinated rebel
01:11 assault on Miyawadi and army posts since April 5. Reuters could not immediately verify the
01:17 reports, and a Myanmar junta spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
01:23 Thai Prime Minister Seta Thuassin said he was monitoring the unrest and Thailand was
01:28 ready to provide humanitarian assistance if necessary.
01:33 Myanmar's military took control in 2021 from an elected government led by Aung San Suu
01:39 Kyi, who remains in detention. The country is locked in a civil war between the military
01:44 on one side and on the other, a loose alliance of established ethnic minority armies and
01:50 a resistance movement born out of the junta's bloody crackdown on anti-coup protests.
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