Myanmar's military has seized a key resistance command headquarters and 10 other bases in the south of the country, state media reported on Tuesday, marking a new gain by the army in the civil war as it seeks control of regions long held by resistance forces.

The capture of the bases in jungle along the border between Mon state and the Bago region marks the latest setback for the pro-democracy armed groups and ethnic militias fighting the army since the 2021 coup.

What state media reported

A report in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper on Tuesday said the army captured 11 bases in the jungle area straddling the Mon-Bago border during a six-day operation that began a week ago.

The captured positions included the special region command headquarters of the National Unity Government, the shadow administration formed after the coup, and a battalion headquarters of the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, a major Karen ethnic rebel group.

According to local reporting, military columns operating from Theinzayat targeted resistance positions across the mountainous territory separating Kyaikto Township in Mon State and Shwegyin Township in Bago Region, taking the 11 positions after four armed engagements. The operation also involved forces of the Karen National Liberation Army's Brigade 1, Battalion 3, and People's Defence Force units.

Claim not independently confirmed

The reported capture could not be independently confirmed because the military does not allow journalists free access to the area, although the claim has not been challenged by the resistance groups named in the reports.

The fighting in the Mon-Bago border hills underlines how the conflict has spread beyond Myanmar's northern and western frontiers into the south, closer to the country's commercial heartland around Yangon.

Thailand has put provinces along the Myanmar border on alert after bullets and shell fragments from the fighting crossed over, Thai media reported, a reminder of how the war continues to spill across Myanmar's borders.

A war in its sixth year

Myanmar has been gripped by conflict since the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted in the 2021 coup. A nationwide resistance movement has since evolved into a civil war between the military government and an array of armed ethnic and pro-democracy groups.

Despite years of fighting, neither side has been able to force a decisive outcome, and control of territory has shifted back and forth across the country. The army's reported gains in the south come as it tries to reassert control ahead of elections it has promised, which resistance groups and their supporters have already rejected as illegitimate.