At least five people were injured when a series of bombs went off near a border crossing between Myanmar and Thailand last night, according to local media reports.
At least five bombs exploded in the middle of the night at multiple locations on the Myanmar side of the border in Tachileik, a few kilometers from the Mae Sai border in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. A Burmese outlet said five were injured, including the junta-allied local administrator. None of the injuries was believed to be severe.
The first blast struck at around 9:45pm behind the Macahokham district head’s home located 1.5 kilometers from the Mae Sai-Tachileik checkpoint. About five minutes later, three more bombs detonated along the Tachileik-Taunggyi road near the offices of the junta proxy political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party. A fifth explosion struck at about 11:30pm in the same vicinity.
Regime police and soldiers concluded that the bombs were improvised explosives. Local media reported that the bombs were likely planted by insurgent forces battling Myanmar’s junta forces.
The so-called People’s Defense Forces, a volunteer force that has allied with Myanmar’s various ethnic insurgent groups, has been battling the Tatmadaw military on the behalf of Myanmar’s government in exile since the 2021 coup d’etat ended the country’s brief experiment with civilian rule.
Myanmar officials said the recently reopened bridge connecting the two countries was unaffected. Reports indicated that there were vehicles traveling across the border this morning.
Until this month, the border crossing had been closed since March 24, 2020.
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