The Royal Thai Air Force scrambled two F16 fighters from an airbase in Nakhon Sawan to Tak province today, after two MiG29 fighters of the Myanmar air force were sighted near the Thai border in Tha Song Yang district.


The sighting coincided with an eruption of intense fighting between Karen rebel forces and Myanmar government troops today.


Informed security sources say that the Karen rebels, from the 7th Corps, launched an attack on a Myanmar military barracks, opposite Ban Mae Salid Luang village of Tha Song Yang district, in retaliation for a drone strike on the house of the Karen commander yesterday.


Myanmar’s air force also launched an air strike on Karen rebel positions, located about 500 metres from the Thai border, prompting yesterday’s evacuation of about 100 women and children to the Thai side of the border in Tha Song Yang district.


The evacuees are now being housed and treated in a shelter on Thai soil.


Thai F-16s deployed following Myanmar air activity near bord