Battles menace Myanmar military’s regional headquarters in Rakhine State

The Arakan Army (AA) is continuing offensive operations in Ann, Rakhine State, with the goal of taking full control of the town where the junta’s Western Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters is located, the group said in a statement on Friday. Renewed fighting broke out in Ann Township in late September before escalating into a full-scale offensive by the AA aimed at capturing the town. “The battle to take the Western Regional Command in Ann remains fierce. Intense fighting is also ongoing in Gwa Township. In Maungdaw, clashes have continued at the last remaining camp,” the group’s spokesperson Khaing Thukha told Myanmar Now, referring to the last junta border police station holding out against the AA’s attacks. He added that he could not disclose detailed information about the battlefield situation at that time. Since fighting resumed in Ann Township, the AA has captured—in order—the junta’s Mae Taung tactical hill camp, the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 373 base, the Military Security Affairs base, the LIB 372 base, and a field engineer battalion base, according to a source connected to the armed, anti-junta forces. “Fighting has been raging in Ann for about three or four days. In the first two days, there have been almost no airstrikes because there has been too much engagement between ground forces,” the source said. “Yesterday, however, there were continuous airstrikes in the afternoon and evening. There was also return fire using heavy artillery,” he added. Khaing Thukha declined to comment on the group’s progress in capturing junta base camps in Ann Township, and communications blackouts have stopped most battlefield news from coming out of Rakhine State. According to a man living in Ann Township, the AA is currently attacking the Artillery Battalion 374 base and the central ordnance depot. “The fighting is intense. Battles are happening throughout Ann at every army position,” he said. The AA has also been using heavy artillery to shell the Western RMC just over a mile outside the township’s urban centre. Due to an AA blockade around Ann, traffic is stopped on the roads from Ma-Ei, Tat Taung, Sittwe, and Padan, making it difficult for the military to send weapons or reinforcements, the source continued. “With the town being surrounded and attacked from all sides, it's not easy for the military council’s soldiers inside to escape. They’ll either have to raise white flags or face death,” he added. He added that the AA had also managed to fend off junta airstrikes. “When the aircraft attacked from one direction, they responded with heavy weapons fire. They also kept shelling the RMC and battalion bases. With so much artillery fire back and forth, the airstrikes are ongoing but haven’t been effective,” he said. Map of Ann, Rakhine State The AA’s shelling of the junta’s airbase in Ann has apparently deterred the air force from using it, according to sources in the township. With few navigable streams or rivers leading to the town, the junta will have difficulty sending reinforcements by air or water, the same sources said. Resistance forces based in Magway Region, which shares a border with Ann Township, said there had also been fighting in the area where they operate. “The AA and other allies have deployed forces along the Ngape-Ann-Padan road," a member of the resistance based in Magway Region said. “There are frequent battles between the many junta columns advancing from the Rakhine-Magway border area and the AA, joined by allied resistance forces. The junta is thoroughly searching all vehicles entering Minbu from Ann,” he added, referring to a Magway Region town. Although the military council has not released information on the state of battle in Ann Township or Magway Region, junta-controlled media reported on October 16 that the military was carrying out “necessary security operations” in response to the AA firing on vehicles travelling the Ann-Padan road, then taking the passengers captive. The AA has not issued a public response to this allegation. Fighting broke out in Ann Township in January this year, continuing until June when the AA captured the junta’s Taw Hein tactical hill base, then pausing again until September. Alongside the AA, the Student Armed Forces (SAF) and People Independence Army (PIA) resistance groups have been participating in the battle for Ann, with each claiming to have lost one fighter in this month’s clashes. People Independence Army (PIA) troops seen at a grave marker for a fallen PIA fighter (Photo- PIA) The blockade and constant shelling and bombing around Ann have left many local civilians trapped and fearing for their lives, according to a resident of the town. “We’re extremely anxious. We have to worry about bullets flying our way,” he said. Residents of the township’s urban wards have moved to villages they believed would be safe before the fighting began, but were trapped when they went back into the town as the battle for the Mae Taung base intensified, he explained. “Now all supplies are cut off. When the roads were blocked, everything was cut off. Starting with rice and then everything else,” the Ann resident said. Ann had a population of over 120,000 according to 2019 estimates, mostly consisting of Rakhine and Chin people. Though economically underdeveloped, it is important due to serving as the site of the Western RMC, which oversees military forces throughout Rakhine State and neighbouring parts of Chin State. The junta has often deployed units under the Western RMC to Sagaing Region, a hotbed of conflict between the military and resistance forces, as reinforcements, and a Chinese-backed natural gas pipeline—with its starting point in Kyaukphyu Township—passes through many villages in Ann Township from the Bay of Bengal. Control of Ann Township might put the AA in a position to take over Kyaukphyu, allowing it to control not only the pipeline but the deep sea port and other Chinese-backed infrastructure projects under development on the Rakhine State coast. Elsewhere in the state, clashes are also ongoing at the military’s last holdout bases in Gwa and Maungdaw townships. The AA has captured ten of Rakhine State’s seventeen townships from junta forces. Funeral ceremony of Student Armed Forces fighter private Ah Paung, age 19 (Photo-SAF)

Battles menace Myanmar military’s regional headquarters in Rakhine State

Clashes have continued since last week in Ann, Rakhine State, the location of the military’s western regional command, with the Arakan Army (AA) now having seized more than half the bases in the town from junta forces

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