Earth-shattering thunder over the jungle canopy made it difficult to distinguish the storm from incoming mortar rounds as 80 ethnic Karen rebels were trying to fend off about 400 attacking Myanmese soldiers last Tuesday. Pounding the Karen lines with artillery, machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, junta soldiers aimed to take the high ground on the mountain where the rebels were dug in with fewer men and less powerful weapons - but with the distinct advantage of firing down on the Myanmese ascending the heavily mined mountainside.
After a fierce battle that lasted about 30 minutes and brought the closest attackers within 100 metres of rebel positions, the junta soldiers ceased fire and retreated - leaving four of their soldiers dead according to radio transmissions intercepted by rebels later that day.
The defenders of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) held off the initial assault without taking casualties, though they were wet, cold and tired - and without eliminating the threat of the 400 Myanmese soldiers still within striking distance of their jungle trenches. Two days later, the Karen guerillas tactically retreated into the surrounding jungle and the soldiers took over their 7th brigade headquarters at Ta Kaw Bee Tah in Myanmar's Myawaddy township.
Last week's fighting was the latest in a decades-long war between Yangon and the Karen, who are fighting for an independent homeland in eastern Myanmar - one of the longest unresolved conflicts in the world waged by one of the largest ethnic groups in Southeast Asia without an independent state.
Numbering about seven million, the Karen inhabit the mountainous jungles that straddle the border of eastern Myanmar and western Thailand. When Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, received independence from Britain in 1948, the Karen demanded an independent state of their own - as promised to them by the British during the second world war, when Karen fighters sided with them during the campaign for Burma.
In 1949, the Karen took up arms for their independence drive and have been fighting ever since.
The capture of the KNLA's 7th brigade headquarters was the main objective of a junta offensive that began on August 5, according to KNLA Colonel Saw Ner Dah Mya. But he says the capture was not a setback as his men had just tactically retreated and will 'continue to harass the Burmese with guerilla fighting'.
