The junta has deployed its army, navy and air force in escalating battles against the Arakan Army (AA) that began on Monday on Rakhine State’s Ramree (Yanbye) Island.
“The military is firing heavy artillery shells at [Ramree] from Thandwe,” a local from the island—the largest on the Rakhine coast—told Myanmar Now on Monday afternoon, referring to a town more than 120 miles south where junta navy vessels are located.
He described the shelling as “reckless” and noted that the number of casualties was not known, but that one civilian was reportedly injured and much of Ramree’s population had been stranded by the fighting, with few residents able to leave for the mainland.
“The majority of the people are trapped inside their own houses as the military is relentlessly firing heavy artillery shells,” the local man continued.
Junta troops stationed inside a pagoda compound on. . .
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