Anti-junta armed group carries on fight for two townships in Rakhine State

The Arakan Army (AA) continued its campaign to take full control of Rakhine State this week, fighting intense battles in two different townships in the state’s north and south on Wednesday. Having already seized the Milestone 4 junta outpost near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Maungdaw Township—manned by Squadron 2 of the junta’s Border Guard Police (BGP)—the AA carried out assaults on the Squadron 5 outpost as junta forces defended it with artillery fire from Maungdaw’s urban wards, a source close to the AA said. Of the ten BGP squadrons stationed on and near the Bangladesh-Rakhine State border before fighting spread to the area, two were stationed in Buthidaung Township and eight were stationed in Maungdaw Township. The first BGP outpost captured was the Squadron 7 base in Kyein Chaung, Maungdaw Township in April. In May, the AA went on to take over the Squadron 1 base in Maungdaw, the Squadron 3 and Squadron 8 bases in Buthidaung Township, the Squadron 10 base in Hla Poe Khaung, Maungdaw Township. The Squadron 5 outpost is one of two BGP bases the AA has yet to capture after taking control of three more in Maungdaw Township in June. In Thandwe Township on the southern side of the state, intense fighting continued on and near Ngapali beach, where local sources said the junta conducted airstrikes on Wednesday to support the army’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 566 and Infantry Battalion (IB) 55 in defending their bases from AA attacks. “They have been bombing all day today, but not quite as frequently as yesterday,” a Thandwe Township resident said. “I think they are using all the aircraft they have. They started bombing at around 10 am.” The junta has also sent warships carrying reinforcements from the Maung Shwe Lay naval base, located some five miles south of Ngapali Beach, across a bay near Kyauk Ka Lat. The junta air force bombed Kin Maw Bo Te village, Thandwe Township at around 2pm on Tuesday, injuring two villagers. Thandwe’s urban wards are largely deserted because of the fighting. One of the town’s residents said that the junta had assigned a tactical officer to oversee Thandwe Prison but that there had been no effort so far to transfer the prisoners. “There are around 20 soldiers in front of School No. 1 in Thandwe, around 30 at the Nan Taw hill pagoda, and some on the An Taw bridge, from what I’ve heard,” the Thandwe resident said. Locals told Myanmar Now that the AA was able to take over the township’s airport on Sunday. The AA has declared its intention to expel the Myanmar military from all its bases in Rakhine State, taking full territorial control of the state, and has already captured nine of the state’s seventeen townships. Battles have also broken out in Ann Township, where the AA seized a junta tactical base on Sunday; in Kyaukphyu Township, the site of lucrative infrastructure projects backed by Chinese investors; and near the state capital of Sittwe, which the AA has all but surrounded. The powerful Rakhine ethnic armed group rebranded as the “Arakha Army” in April as a show of its interest in representing all ethnic communities in the state, not only the Rakhine Buddhist population.

Anti-junta armed group carries on fight for two townships in Rakhine State

Fierce clashes broke out Wednesday as the Arakan Army (AA) attacked Border Guard Police bases near Maungdaw in the north and infantry battalion bases near Thandwe in the south

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