Myanmar junta troops launched a helicopter raid on anti-coup fighters in a restive region, locals and a spokesman said Monday, as the military struggles to break resistance to its rule.

Anti-junta militias have sprung up across Myanmar to fight back after the February coup and a crackdown on dissent that a local monitoring group says has killed more than 1,300 people.

These "people's defence forces" (PDFs) have surprised the army with their effectiveness, analysts have said, dragging the junta into a bloody stalemate.

On Friday, junta troops launched a raid on a PDF meeting in the country's central Sagaing region using helicopters and jet fighters, locals said.

Two helicopters landed and deployed troops, said a Hnan Khar village resident who did not want to be named, adding that a jet had strafed a building.

Another local told AFP the military used five helicopters in the attack and that troops had fired on the village of around 6,000 people from the air.

Troops killed two PDF leaders and seven civilians after they disembarked, one of them added.

AFP was unable to verify the reports.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun confirmed the military had used helicopters in the raid, without saying how they were used.

He said he had no casualty figures.

The military typically calls on helicopters and airborne assaults when ground troops have struggled, analysts have said.

In May the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group in the country's far north, said it downed a military helicopter gunship during fierce clashes near the town of Momauk.

Sagaing has seen regular clashes and increasingly bloody reprisals.

Earlier this month the United States and United Nations condemned the junta over what Washington described as "credible and sickening" reports of the killing of 11 villagers, including children.

The statements came as local media and residents said that soldiers seized 11 people from Dontaw village following mine and bomb attacks on a military convoy a day earlier.

The junta has dismissed the claims.

UN agency calls for 'urgent access' to Myanmar refugees
Bangkok (AFP) Dec 20, 2021 - The UN's refugee agency on Monday called for Thailand to allow them "urgent access" to more than 3,000 Myanmar refugees who fled to the kingdom to escape fighting in conflict-wracked Karen state.

Clashes between Myanmar's military and the Karen National Union -- a rebel group vocally opposed to a junta which deposed a civilian government in February -- broke out last week in a town not far from the Thai border.

Some 700 refugees crossed the river into Thailand's Tak province on Thursday, fleeing artillery shelling and small arms fire. By Monday, the number had ballooned to 3,900 due to continued fighting, the UNHCR said.

"UNHCR is concerned for the welfare of these civilians and has approached the Thai authorities with offers of assistance," it said in a statement.

"UNHCR and NGOs have requested urgent access to the refugees to ascertain and deliver to them the necessary humanitarian and protection assistance."

Provincial authorities said late Monday about 3,500 refugees remain in two locations on the Thai side, as dozens have gradually returned since fighting appeared to have ceased.

"Thai authorities are providing humanitarian assistance and transportation for those who volunteer to return to Myanmar by transporting them from the banks of Moei River," said a statement released by Tak province.

But Naw K'Nyay Paw, general secretary of Karen Women's Organisation, said the majority of people are still afraid.

"It's very tense and the fighting is still continuing in some areas," she told AFP. "I don't think it is representing the true feelings of the refugees."

The latest wave of some 1,500 people on Sunday came after renewed fighting broke out in Mae Htaw Thalay, a town bordering Thailand where displaced people were sheltering.

"There was artillery shooting in the area... The KNU tried to move them to a safer place," a Karen state resident told AFP, adding that thousands of displaced people, including children, were sent running as the shelling continued for hours.

"We heard shooting close to us and we tried to flee... We could only leave the village after they suspended shooting for a while around 7pm," he said.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun confirmed the fighting in Mae Htaw Thalay on Monday, adding that the military are now "trying to control the situation by negotiating with KNU."

The clashes kicked off last week after state media reported junta troops entered KNU territory and arrested several dissidents, including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's ousted government.

The rebel group -- one of more than 20 ethnic armed groups holding territories in Myanmar's border regions -- has been a staunch opponent of the junta, providing shelter to anti-coup dissidents.

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