Arakan Army captures Ramree after months of fighting

The Arakan Army (AA) captured the Kyaukphyu District town of Ramree on Monday, the site where a major Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline begins. In a statement released that day, the AA said it had established control over the whole town and that the remaining junta troops had been driven out after 85 days of clashes. The victory came after local sources said the Rakhine ethnic armed organisation carried out a noon raid on a Myanmar army post on Thein Taung pagoda hill south of the town, overtaking the site. A man from Ramree noted that the AA troops chased down junta soldiers who attempted to escape the base in question. The military responded by repeatedly bombing the town from the air, and firing heavy artillery from the Thein Taung base, causing much of Ramree to burn down. A 65-year-old woman from the Lay Taung area of Ramree was reportedly injured in the airstrikes. Some 15 hostages had been held by the military at the Thein Taung base, one of whom was reportedly executed by the Myanmar army troops as they retreated; the others were freed by the AA. “When the junta troops fled, the hostages were told not to look up. I don't know if one of them looked up. It is said that the person who looked up was hit by a bullet in the chest,” the local Ramree man said. He speculated that the junta might continue its attacks on the area. “The planes are still hovering. They are also dropping bombs. Their stance seems to be that if they must completely abandon a town, they will destroy it in their final act of defiance," the Ramree man told Myanmar Now. Ramree island is one of Myanmar’s largest and is strategically located between Kyaukphyu, Manaung and Taungup townships. It is the starting point of a natural gas pipeline that runs 700 kilometres to China, while another pipeline transporting crude oil starts from nearby Maday island, near Kyaukphyu. The town of Ramree has six wards in total home to some 80,000 people, most of whom have since evacuated to rural areas. In late January and throughout February, the military launched heavy air and naval attacks on the town, destroying much of its infrastructure, including the hospital and central market. The AA asked that displaced persons refrain from rushing back to Ramree due to dangers still present on the ground. “We would like to request that the local residents of Ramree not immediately return to your residences since we need to clear various types of landmines planted by junta troops over the past three months,” the group’s Monday statement said. The AA has recently taken over the towns of Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon and Ponnagyun in northern Rakhine State, as well as Paletwa in Chin State, but Ramree is the first such seizure in the southern part of the state. The Ramree local man who spoke to Myanmar Now said he was “glad” that the AA had overtaken the town, and suggested that support for the ethnic armed organisation has been growing in the region. On March 6, the AA attacked a junta convoy with explosives in Taungup, where the regime’s Military Operations Command 5 is located and operates two Light Infantry Battalions, 346 and 544. The AA’s forces are expected to advance toward the state capital of Sittwe as they continue their gains in southern Rakhine. Some 148,500 people have been displaced throughout Rakhine and southern Chin states since fighting between the AA and the military intensified in November, according to UN estimates.

Arakan Army captures Ramree after months of fighting

Ramree was the first town attacked by the ethnic armed organisation in southern Rakhine State last year, and the first seized from the junta in the region

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