Ethnic Karen guerrillas in Myanmar leave a town that army lost 2 weeks ago as rival group holds sway WSB-TV Channel 2 [Video]

BANGKOK — (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military government have withdrawn from the eastern border town of Myawaddy two weeks after forcing the army to give up its defense, residents and members of the group said Wednesday.

Their withdrawal came after a contending armed Karen group, which has occupied the town and claimed responsibility for its security, provided assistance to army soldiers who had fled to a riverside spot there for safety.

The soldiers came from the army’s Infantry Battalion 275, whose base, about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of Myawaddy, was captured on April 11 by the armed wing of the Karen National Union —- or KNU — and allied pro-democracy forces.

The fleeing soldiers reestablished themselves in an area next to one of Myawaddy’s two bridges connecting it to Thailand’s Mae Sot district.

The complicated maneuvering is the latest development in the nationwide conflictin Myanmar that began after the army ousted the …