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Highly effective ethnic Rakhine armed group the Arakan Military (AA) launched assaults on the junta’s Border Guard Police (BGP) outposts in Rathedaung Township in northern Rakhine State in western Myanmar early Monday morning. The assaults pile additional stress on the regime, which is presently scuffling with an array of resistance offensives in different components of the nation.
The AA started by attacking the BGP outposts in Executed Pike and Chein Khar Li villages, positioned beside the Angumaw-Maungdaw Highway, at round 5 a.m. on Monday. Rathedaung residents stated the AA seized the outpost in Executed Pike a couple of minutes after launching the assault.
“The AA began by launching the assault on the outpost in Executed Pike and it’s been confirmed that Executed Pike has already been seized,” stated a Rathedaung resident.
The residents stated the clashes are ongoing, including that villagers are fleeing because the junta’s navy is repeatedly firing artillery shells within the space.
In Rakhine State, BGP outposts are manned by each junta police and junta navy troops.
The AA is a member of an ethnic alliance that has been combating towards the regime throughout northern Shan State since late final month. Some AA troops have been concerned in combating within the space since then.
Monday’s assaults on the BGP outposts in northern Rakhine symbolize the AA’s first offensive motion towards the regime in Rakhine since its casual truce with the junta final yr.
Army tensions have been rising in Rakhine following the junta’s current mobilizing of troops.
The junta has been beefing up its forces in Rakhine cities and cities because the first week of November, because the AA is collaborating within the Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027 offensive, which has seized not less than 130 junta targets in Shan and Kachin states and northern Sagaing and Mandalay areas over previous two weeks.
The sudden strike by the AA in Rathedaung on Monday morning follows the junta’s assault on AA bases close to Laiza Township, Kachin State at round 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. The tripartite Brotherhood Alliance stated the junta fired artillery shells on the AA bases in Laiza yesterday however didn’t reveal additional particulars.
The Irrawaddy reached out for remark to AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha this morning however received no reply.
Nevertheless, battle analysts stated the junta’s assault on AA bases in Munglaikhet close to Laiza, which is residence to the Kachin Independence Military’s headquarters in Kachin State, might have been what sparked this sudden assault.
As a result of ongoing clashes in Rathedaung, the junta has ordered a blockade of all roads connecting the main cities and cities in Rakhine State.
“The Sittwe-Yangon freeway, the Angumaw-Maungdaw highway, and the freeway connecting all of the cities between Mrauk-U and Sittwe, all are closed now,” stated a Sittwe resident.
He stated that the junta has additionally ordered freeway bus terminals closed and banned all common passenger boats from working, stranding many individuals at boat and bus terminals in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe.
It has additionally ordered the closure of all rice outlets within the markets as a means of reducing off the AA’s meals provide, stated Sittwe residents.
Because the AA has already seized the Executed Pike outposts, heavy clashes are ongoing in and round Chein Khar Li Village.
A Chein Khar Li villager stated on Monday morning that he and his household needed to flee into the jungle.
“We bumped into the jungle instantly, as we heard gunshots. Now artillery shells are nonetheless being fired and the clashes are nonetheless occurring,” he stated.
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