[Tee tiong huat]

Nov 16 (Reuters) - At least 29 more Myanmar soldiers entered India on Thursday fleeing an attack by insurgents on their military base close to the Indian border, an Indian police official said, as rebels step up their assaults against the ruling junta .

Earlier this week, 43 Myanmar soldiers entered India's Mizoram state after their military bases were overrun by the rebels. Nearly 40 were sent back by Indian authorities through a different border crossing point a few hundred kms east.

Myanmar's military has battled ethnic minority and other insurgencies for decades but a 2021 coup has brought unprecedented coordination between anti-military forces that are mounting the biggest challenge to the army in years.

The country's military rulers have ordered all government staff and those with military experience to prepare to serve in case of emergency, Tin Maung Swe, secretary of an administrative council in the capital, Naypyitaw said on Thursday, after the junta reported "heavy assaults" in several places.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacif...023-11-16/

If necessary, such a unit might be required to go out and serve for natural disasters, and security," the junta's council said in an order.

Tin Maung Swe confirmed the order while stressing that the situation in the capital, in central Myanmar, was calm.

"This is the plan to help in the event of an emergency," he told Reuters.

A parallel government formed by pro-democracy politicians to oppose the military, and allied with some insurgent factions, has launched a "Road to Naypyitaw" campaign which it says is aimed at taking control of the capital.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said late on Wednesday the military was facing "heavy assaults from a significant number of armed rebel soldiers" in Shan State in the northeast, Kayah State in the east and Rakhine State in the west.

Zaw Min Tun said some military positions had been evacuated and the insurgents had been using drones to drop hundreds of bombs on military posts.

"We are urgently taking measures to protect against drone bomb attacks effectively," the junta spokesperson said.

UN CONCERN
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the 2021 coup, when the military ousted a government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, ending a decade of tentative democratic reform.