Arakan Army captures Taungup centre while military holds ground at nearby headquarters

Anti-regime forces led by the Arakan Army (AA) seized control of Taungup (Toungup) in southern Rakhine State on Friday morning, overrunning the remaining junta outposts in the centre of town, local sources said. Residents of the town told Myanmar Now that AA fighters had advanced into Taungup Township’s urban wards this week, forcing all remaining junta personnel to retreat. “The military has withdrawn its forces and the AA is now taking up positions inside the town,” a man from Taungup said. The AA has yet to capture the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 346 and 544 bases or the Myanmar army’s Military Operations Command 5 (MOC-5) headquarters outside the town centre, which are still in the junta forces’ hands. The military regime’s air force carried out bombing raids on Tuesday amid clashes between the junta and AA in Taungup, killing at least four civilians including two teenage girls in Thin Chi Kaing village, around one mile north of the urban wards. Clashes have escalated in the Taungup area since early November as the AA attempted to push into the town. At the same time, the AA has launched attacks on military forces in Ann and Gwa townships in southern Rakhine State. Airstrikes and shelling damaged the wards and villages surrounding the MOC-5, according to Taungup residents. “At least 17 houses in Thein Taung Ward near the Shwe Taung ice factory were damaged by junta artillery and bombing this week,” a man from Taungup said. Local sources said there had been at least 20 civilians injured in the clashes this week, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify the number of casualties independently due to communications failures throughout most of the state. As people in Taungup Township fled their homes to escape the violence, the AA carried out evacuations of areas under their control on Thursday, transporting around 800 people to safe areas in cars and trucks. “They moved around 800 civilians out using vehicles last night after telling them they could no longer stay,” said a Taungup resident on Friday, after leaving the town four days earlier. At least 10,000 displaced people are seeking refuge in rural areas, far away from ongoing fighting, according to volunteers based in Taungup Township. The township had an estimated population of around 150,000 in 2019, with 30 percent of the population living in the towns of Taungup, Ma Ei, and Tan Hlwe Ywar Ma. The AA, which resumed offensive operations against the Myanmar military a year ago, has since taken control of ten of Rakhine State’s 17 townships as well as Paletwa Township in Chin State.

Arakan Army captures Taungup centre while military holds ground at nearby headquarters

The ethnic armed organisation has forced junta troops out of Taungup Township’s urban centre in southern Rakhine State, but has yet to capture the Military Operations Command 5 (MOC-5) on the outskirts

Subscribe for full access

How the global fuel crisis is upending Myanmar’s rice supply chain

No way out: Junta airstrike leaves prisoners burned alive in AA camp

Killing their own: How Myanmar’s military targets those left behind

The costly resistance operation that saved hundreds of civilian hostages

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Junta assaults displace thousands during Myanmar’s Thingyan New Year’s festival

More than a third of junta chief’s new cabinet under Western sanctions

AA vows to take all of Rakhine State by end of next year

Myanmar dictator names members of new ‘super council’