The Myanmar junta has carried out more air raids near Lay Kay Kaw new town in Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township, where Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 6 is active, according to sources on the ground.

Junta helicopters attacked an outpost of the combined forces of KNLA troops and other Karen resistance groups near Shu Khin Thar Park in Lay Kay Kaw on Wednesday, a KNLA official told DMG.

“Three junta helicopters bombed and fired shots at our outposts three times around 4:30 p.m. yesterday,” he said on Thursday.

The two sides have clashed fiercely since Monday in and around Lay Kay Kaw, after junta troops carried out attacks on KNLA troops.

Many locals have not been able to return to their homes due to recurring clashes in the area. The secretary of the Dupalaya District Karen National Union, the political wing of the KNLA, asked the Myanmar military’s South Eastern Command on Monday to withdraw their troops from the region within three days so that local residents can return to their homes.

“Large junta troop deployments and their military operations make it difficult for locals to return home. So [the KNU] has asked the South Eastern Command to withdraw troops within three days as of March 7. Clashes will further intensify if they don’t accept it,” a source close to KNLA Brigade 6 told DMG.

More than 20,000 residents from Lay Kay Kaw and areas west of Dawna Mountain have been displaced by the fighting and still cannot return to their homes.