Fighter jets pin down Maungdaw Twsp villagers with strafing fire

By DMG 12 Nov 2022

DMG Newsroom
12 November 2022, Maungdaw

Two junta fighter jets unleashed rounds of strafing fire near Yan Aung Pyin Village in northern Maungdaw Township at around 1 p.m. on Saturday, according to local residents.

While some residents fled to nearby villages, others were trapped in the village, said a Yan Aung Pyin villager who managed to escape.

“Those who are trapped in the village told me that junta soldiers entered the village after the strafing and were interrogating villagers. I can’t contact them now. All of them have switched off their phones,” he said.

Border Guard Police Base No. 7 and a junta checkpoint based in Kyein Chaung Village continuously shelled near Yan Aung Pyin Village, according to residents of Kyein Chaung Village, which is just one mile from Yan Aung Pyin.

“They have been firing artillery shells since the morning,” he said on Saturday. “They then came and strafed with two aircraft. They are still firing. And junta troops have surrounded Yan Aung Pyin Village.”

Junta troops at the security checkpoint in Kyein Chaung Village also fired artillery shells near Yan Aung Pyin Village on Thursday, though there was no fighting in the vicinity, Arakan Army spokesman U Khaing Thukha told DMG.

DMG was unable to reach junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun and Arakan State Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Kyaw Thura for comment.

Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army flared anew in August, with armed hostilities taking place in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Minbya, Rathedaung, Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, and in neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township.