About 10,000 people from Myanmar fled across the border into Thailand on Monday to escape fighting between Myanmar government forces and a splinter group of rebels of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, military and border officials told CNN. 
 
 The rebels and Myanmar forces clashed over control of the town of Myawaddy, which sits across the Moei River from Mae Sot, Thailand. The Thailand-Burma Friendship bridge connects the two towns. 
 
 Lt. Col. Vannathit Wongwai, commander of Thailand's 3rd Region Army, said Myanmar military officials told him they had retaken control of Myawaddy at 5 p.m. local time after bringing in 500 reinforcements to battle the Karen splinter group. 
 
 At least five Myanmar refugees and five Thais were injured in the fighting. Shells fell on the Thai side of the border, but the Thai military did not return fire, military officials told the Bangkok Post. 
 
 According to a report on the website Burma Election Tracker, the clashes began when DKBA militia members who had been employed as government border security troops rebelled because the Myanmar military was forcing people to vote at gunpoint. 
 
 "In order to win votes in the elections, [the junta] is bullying and forcing people to vote. But the people want to boycott [the vote], so the soldiers are holding them at gunpoint and our troops had to intervene and take sides with the people," the website report quotes Brig. Gen. Na Kham Mwe, head of the breakaway DKBA faction, as saying. 
 
 Polls were supposed to have closed Sunday in Myanmar's first election in 20 years, which critics have called a façade of democracy put forth by the ruling military junta. 
 
 Opposition parties were either limited in the candidates they could run or boycotted the election altogether. The junta did not allow international monitors. 
 
 The Karen ethnic minority in Myanmar is divided into two main groups, Buddhists who support the ruling junta and Christians who do not. Those behind Monday's clashes have split from the pro-junta group. ||||| Thousands of Myanmar refugees have crossed into Thailand amid the clashes [Reuters] Fighting between Myanmar government troops and ethnic fighters has sent at least 10,000 people fleeing into Thailand a day after the military-led nation held a much-criticised election. 
 
 
 
 Clashes were reported on Monday at key points on the border with Thailand, leaving at least three people dead and 10 others wounded on both sides of the frontier. 
 
 
 
 The clashes follow a demonstration by the fighters over Sunday's general election, Myanmar's first in 20 years, as well as attempts to force ethnic minority troops to join a border guard force - which would put them under state control. A simmering civil war has wracked parts of Myanmar since independence in 1948 and observers say the state's determination to crush ethnic anti-government fighters appeared to have increased in the lead up to the election. 
 
 
 
 In the heaviest fighting, Karen fighters reportedly seized a police station and post office on Sunday in the Myanmar border town of Myawaddy. 
 
 
 
 Sporadic gun and mortar fire continued into Monday afternoon. Stray rocket 
 
 
 
 Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from the Thai border town of Mae Sot, said that a stray rocket propelled grenade crossed into Thailand, injuring five people. 
 
 
 
 "The clashes appear to be between a faction linked to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and government-backed troops," Ortigas said. 
 
 
 
 "This faction has said it did not support the ceasefire the DKBA signed with the Myanmar government, and have reiterated that they want their own autonomy." 
 
 
 
 Our correspondent also said refugees from Myanmar who crossed the border into Thailand feared government troops would shoot them for failing to vote on Sunday. Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), said fighting broke out between up to 300 DKBA soldiers and government forces. "We don't know definitely but I think last night the army sent over more troops, they negotiated and the DKBA retreated but this morning they were blocked by army trucks and then it started," she said. 'Foul play' 
 
 
 
 Myanmar, also known as Burma, drew international criticism over Sunday's vote with Barack Obama, the US president, saying the election was stolen. 
 
 Al Jazeera's special correspondent reports on the difficulty in ascertaining the true will of the people "It is unacceptable to steal elections, as the regime in Burma has done again for all the world to see," Obama, currently on a tour of four Asian nations, said in a speech to India's parliament in New Delhi. 
 
 
 
 Europe and Japan also condemned the conduct of the poll as state TV reported that voters "freely and happily" cast their ballots. 
 
 
 
 State media, featuring photos of Than Shwe, the country's ruling general and other senior leaders voting, announced the "winners" in 57 constituencies, 55 of which were contested by just one candidate, more than two thirds of those with the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). 
 
 
 
 In many constituencies, the poll was a two-way battle between the USDP and the National Unity Party (NUP), which is the successor to former leader Ne Win's party and also closely aligned with the military. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said voter turnout was estimated at more than 60 per cent but that the results from the whole country could take one week. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said voting conditions had been "insufficiently inclusive, participatory and transparent". Than Nyein, chairman of the National Democratic Force, created by former members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said the election was marred by irregularities. 
 
 
 
 "It's very different from our expectation because of foul play," he told the AFP news agency. 
 
 
 
 "We have our evidence. Some candidates complained ... because there was vote cheating." 
 
 
 
 'Missed opportunity' Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister, has said that ethnic minority clashes with the military in eastern Myanmar could continue for months. He also said that the country was ready to provide humanitarian assistance as refugee numbers continue to rise. 
 
 
 
 "It is possible that it will carry on during the next three months, particularly during the transition from the current government to an elected government," Abhisit told reporters in the Bangkok, the Thai capital. 
 
 
 
 With no specific time given for the release of election results, Western powers were labelling the vote as a "missed opportunity". But some saw the poll as a small step towards democracy after almost five decades of military rule, with opposition parties confident of success in areas they did contest. 
 
 
 
 However, with 25 per cent of the seats in parliament reserved for military appointees regardless of the outcome, the two main pro-military parties needed to win just 26 per cent of the remaining seats to secure a majority. 
 
 
 
 Al Jazeera's correspondent in Myanmar added that despite opposition groups running in the polls, electoral advantages had been skewed towards the USDP. Advance ballots 
 
 
 
 Two opposition parties accused the USDP of illegally collecting advance ballots. Election Facts 29 million eligible voters 40,000 polling stations 3,071 candidates from 37 political parties 82 independent candidates 494 seats in the two-chamber parliament 665 seats spread among 14 regional parliaments The NDF said some people had complained that they were told by the USDP there was no need to vote as their ballots had already been collected. More than 29 million people were eligible to vote but it remains uncertain as to how many actually cast ballots. 
 
 
 
 International condemnation of the polls continued to grow, with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, saying Washington would maintain "rigorous sanctions" against the Myanmar government. 
 
 
 
 The electoral process was "severely flawed, precluded an inclusive, level playing field, and repressed fundamental freedoms," Clinton said. After the election, attention is now turning to whether the government will release Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, when her current term of house arrest ends. 
 
 
 
 The Nobel Peace Prize winner led the NLD to power in 1990 but the result was never recognised by the ruling generals. 
 
 
 
 She has been detained for most of the last 20 years and supported a boycott of Sunday's election. ||||| BEIRUT Rebels battled to hold onto Syria's main north-south highway on Friday as government forces fought insurgents on several fronts across the country. 
 
 The rebels captured an air defense base east of Syria's biggest city, Aleppo, and government forces unleashed air strikes and artillery bombardments on the western city of Homs, activists said. 
 
 On the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey scrambled two fighter jets after a Syrian military helicopter bombed the Syrian border town of Azmarin, the site of fierce fighting between rebels and government forces this week. 
 
 Tensions between Ankara and Damascus are worsening at a time when the 19-month-old conflict is intensifying with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough and growing concerns that the violence could spread across the Middle East. 
 
 The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a death toll for Thursday of more than 260 people, including civilians and combatants on both sides, as fighting raged in the capital and the north, west and east of the country. 
 
 It said 92 soldiers had been killed on Thursday, one of the highest daily tolls on the government side since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011. 
 
 The official SANA news agency also reported fighting nationwide and said dozens of rebels, which it called "mercenary terrorists", had been killed. 
 
 In Idlib, activists said opposition fighters captured about 400 soldiers and loyalist militiamen this week in Western Jisr al-Shoughour, a hilly agricultural area. 
 
 Photos released by the opposition showed dozens of uniformed soldiers sitting on the ground in what appeared to be a hangar. 
 
 "Around 400 loyalist troops have been captured. Many of them were poor conscripts who were let go. The more important officers are being interrogated," a rebel source said. 
 
 The reports could not be independently verified but they indicate an intensifying conflict, with the daily body counts of the past few weeks far exceeding previous months. 
 
 HIGHWAY HELL 
 
 The British-based Observatory, which has a network of monitors in Syria, reported fighting at a military barracks close to Maarat al-Nuaman, a town on the highway from Homs to Aleppo in the northwest. 
 
 Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, has been contested since July and the rebel capture of Maarat al-Nuaman this week cut the main route for Assad's military to resupply and reinforce it. 
 
 Opposition sources said rebels on Thursday halted an armored army column at Khan Sheikhoun which had been sent from Hama to retake Maarat al-Nuaman, 70 km (40 miles) south of Aleppo. They also reported artillery barrages along the highway between Khan Sheikhoun and Maarat in the past 72 hours. 
 
 SANA said government forces were trying to clear Aleppo's Karm al-Jabal area of rebels on Friday. 
 
 More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started out as a popular uprising against four decades of Assad family rule and domination by their Alawite sect and then spiraled into civil war. 
 
 Fighting has also spilled over its borders into Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, stoking fears that the war could drag in its neighbors. 
 
 Since Syrian bombardments hit Turkish villages last week, Ankara and Damascus have squared off militarily and rhetorically, with Turkey moving troops to the border and threatening to retaliate if there is further cross-border bloodshed. 
 
 Turkey infuriated Syria on Wednesday when it forced a passenger plane flying from Russia to Syria to land in Ankara. Turkish authorities said it was carrying Russian-made munitions for the Syrian army, a charge denied by Damascus and Moscow. 
 
 Turkey allows rebels sanctuary on its soil and has led calls, along with Western powers and Gulf Arab states, for Assad to step down. The Syrian president counts on the support of Russia and Iran. 
 
 Despite the bluster, most analysts believe that neither Syria nor Turkey want matters to get out of hand. The United States and European powers have also shown no desire to intervene militarily, despite much hand-wringing over the bloodshed. 
 
 HOMS UNDER FIRE AGAIN 
 
 Assad's forces also ramped up air strikes and artillery barrages against Homs on Friday, a day after they took heavy losses trying to overrun the rebel-held Khalidiya district, opposition activists said. 
 
 "There are 50 bodies of soldiers and shabbiha (militia) on the streets in Khalidiya and regime troops cannot retrieve them," said Ahmad Tarkawi, a local opposition leader. 
 
 "The situation remains tough. The regime is now using a multiple rings tactic to surround Homs." 
 
 Homs, 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, was the focus of world attention in February when a government siege pulverized rebel-held districts and killed hundreds of fighters and civilians. It is also a gateway to the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean, heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect. 
 
 Video footage showed a six-storey building in Khalidiya flattened by an airstrike. 
 
 Shelling and aerial bombardments also hit Sunni Muslim towns near Homs to prevent rebels in the countryside from joining the battle for Homs, opposition activist Abu Yazan said. 
 
 Meanwhile, the refugee crisis grew ever more acute, with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR saying that between 2,000 and 3,000 people were fleeing across borders every day from Syria. 
 
 The total number of refugees now stood at more than 340,000, Melissa Fleming, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said in Geneva. 
 
 "And now into the winter months, more and more of these people are going to be living in camp situations. So more and more of these people are going to be spending the winter in tents," she said. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Jonathon Burch on the Turkish border and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Editing by Louise Ireland)
– Some 10,000 people fled across the border from Myanmar into Thailand today to escape fighting between government troops and a splinter of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army rebel group. At least three people have been killed and 10 others wounded in the battle, which broke out in the eastern border town of Myawaddy, according to Al Jazeera. Members of the DKBA militia had been working as border security troops for the government, but rebelled when they saw that the military was forcing people to vote at gunpoint, according to a Burmese web report quoted by CNN. “The people want to boycott [the vote], so the soldiers are holding them at gunpoint and our troops had to intervene and take sides with the people,” a militia general said.