Junta helicopter makes emergency landing after being fired on in western Myanmar

A military helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Magway Region on Sunday after it was fired on as it was leaving Ann Township in Rakhine State, according to local sources. The Mi-17 helicopter was one of two that had reportedly been used to transport weapons and ammunition to Ann, where the Arakan Army (AA) is fighting for control of the junta’s Western Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters. Local residents told Myanmar Now that the helicopter landed in a field near Kan Pauk, a village in Magway’s Sidotkaya Township, at around 2pm on Sunday. “I heard [the military] had to send backhoes and bulldozers, as well as security vehicles, because it was stuck in the mud,” said one man living in the area. The AA has been waging an offensive in Ann Township since April, when it began targeting the Taw Hein Taung tactical command base near the town of Ann. Fighting paused after the base fell on June 23, but resumed in late September when the group turned its attention to the Mae Taung hilltop base, also near Ann, which it captured on October 7. Since then, the AA has intensified its efforts to take full control of Ann and the Western RMC headquarters, seizing a series of junta army bases, including a field engineering base, the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 373 and LIB 371 bases, a military security affairs base, and an ordnance depot, according to local sources. At the same time, the AA and its allies have been intercepting regime forces on the road from Ann to Padan in Magway Region’s Ngape Township, which serves as an important conduit for supplies and reinforcements to junta bases in Rakhine State. Anti-regime forces have downed a number of junta aircraft since the military seized power in February 2021. On January 3 of this year, a transport helicopter crashed near the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Laiza, Kachin State, after it was shot at by the group. Two weeks later, the KIA also shot down a fighter plane near the village of Nam Hpat Kar in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township, killing two airmen. Later the same month, anti-junta forces aligned with the Karen National Union downed a transport helicopter in Karen (Kayin) State’s Myawaddy Township, killing five regime officers, including a brigadier general. Last year, two junta aircraft were shot down in Karenni (Kayah) State—one in July by a local resistance group in Bawlakhe Township and another in November by the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force in Hpruso Township.Shortly after the coup, on May 3, 2021, the KIA successfully shot down a junta helicopter in Momauk Township, Kachin State. A junta officer confirmed during a press conference that three air force officers were killed in the attack.

Junta helicopter makes emergency landing after being fired on in western Myanmar

The Mi-17 helicopter came under fire as it was leaving Ann Township in Rakhine State, where the regime is fighting to hold onto its regional military command centre

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