MAE SOT, Thailand, April 8 (Reuters) - Clashes along the Thai border between Myanmar soldiers and an ethnic rebel group have killed at least 17, wounded 19 and forced hundreds to flee to Thailand, Thai officials and a pro-Myanmar militia said on Sunday. Myanmar troops and its allied militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), raided three outposts of the Karen National Union (KNU) in the Karen State along the Thai border at 2 a.m. on Sunday (1900 GMT), a Thai security official told Reuters. DKBA troops travelling by boat on the Moei River launched rockets that killed at least three KNU guerrillas. The DKBA also lost eight men in a landmine set by the KNU, said the official who declined to be identified. The clashes, which lasted about an hour, also wounded at least 19 people on both sides. The KNU retreated and their positions have been taken by Myanmar and DKBA soldiers, said a Reuters journalist who was observing from the Thai side of the river. The raids, which prompted 300 Karen villagers to cross the river to the Thai border town of Mae Ramard, came shortly after KNU troops raided a checkpoint in the Myanmar border town of Myawadi late on Saturday, killing five policemen and a soldier, a DKBA official said. "The KNU has broken the agreement with the Myanmar government that it would not attack the Asia 1 highway during the temporary ceasefire," agreed in December 2003, the DKBA official said. No formal peace deal has been agreed and skirmishes continue with government troops and their allies. The KNU and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), have been fighting the central government for greater autonomy since 1949. The rebels suffered a major setback in late 1994 when a Buddhist faction, now the DKBA, staged a mutiny against the Christian-dominated group, breaking away and eventually defecting to join the Myanmar government side. The split was a key factor in the collapse of the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw in early 1995. Fighting between the KNU and the Myanmar troops along the Thai border has intensified since last month when Bangkok called in Myanmar's ambassador to protest over the death of a Thai soldier killed in clashes between Myanmar troops and the KNU.
