Two F16s sent to intercept Myanmar aircraft near border in Tak province

The Thai Air Force scrambled two F16 fighters this afternoon, after a Myanmar military aircraft was sighted close to the Thai border in Phop Phra district of the western province of Tak.

A well-informed army source said that the YAK-130 plane was flying near the border as it dropped four bombs on the command centre of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), an ethnic armed group fighting the Burmese junta, opposite Vally sub-district of Tak.

The Air Force scrambled the two fighters from its base in Nakhon Sawan. The Myanmar aircraft returned to Myanmar airspace.

The fighting in Myanmar has, however, forced 377 Karen civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly, to seek temporary refuge in three shelters in Thailand’s Phop Phra district.