Thousand flee to Thailand as Myanmar's Junta attacks against rebel groups

 The clashes broke out on Wednesday, a day after state media reported junta troops entered KNU territory and arrested several dissidents

loads of Myanmar villagers have fled to Thailand after junta troops clashed with an ethnic rebellion group, officials advised AFP on Thursday.

combating among Karen countrywide Union (KNU) and the military broke out on Wednesday inside the town of Lay Kay Kaw near the Thai border -- the first such clashes in months.

On Thursday, photographs by using neighborhood media showed dozens of people lining as much as go a river that paperwork a part of the border.

A Thai authorities authentic in Tak province who spoke on condition of anonymity told AFP seven-hundred people had crossed the border, and could take delivery of food and refuge.

Naw ok'nyaw Paw, popular secretary at the Karen women's enterprise, informed AFP that extra than 1,000 had been allowed to go after community leaders negotiated with Thai government.

"I heard small arms fire and heavy artillery," stated one local from a village close to Lay Kay Kaw. "more humans have arrived in our village and there are about 3,000 hiding right here now."

The clashes broke out on Wednesday, a day after state media stated junta troops entered KNU territory and arrested several dissidents, along with a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's ousted authorities.

The group's combatants had due to the fact injured and killed junta troops, stated Padoh noticed Thamain Tun of the KNU, with out supplying information.

AFP could not verify the claims and the junta did no longer reply to requests for remark. The KNU has been a vocal opponent of the coup and furnished safe haven to dissidents operating to oust the junta.

Its warring parties have clashed sporadically with the Myanmar military alongside the Thai border. In March, its warring parties seized a army submit and the army retaliated with air raids, the primary in more than 20 years in Karen nation.

Myanmar has more than 20 ethnic rebellion groups, lots of whom hold territories within the u . s .'s border regions.