Military, AA blame each other in deadly mortar shelling over border with Bangladesh

By DMG 18 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
18 September 2022, Sittwe

The Myanmar military and Arakan Army are accusing each other of having fired a mortar shell that landed in Bangladesh on the evening of September 16, killing a teen Muslim refugee from Myanmar and injuring six others.

An 18-year-old man was killed and six others, including a child, sustained injuries in the firing of mortar shells from Myanmar into a “no-man’s land” on the Bangladesh side Friday. The AA said in a statement on September 17 that the incident was caused by artillery shells fired by the military.

“The AA strongly condemns the military council’s reckless firing of heavy weapons at civilian targets, and deeply regrets those who were affected and killed by the inhumane and brutal attack,” the ethnic armed group said in a statement.

Myanmar’s military regime, meanwhile, blamed the AA for the deadly shelling, with junta-run media alleging that the Arakanese ethnic armed group had been “cooperating with ARSA” in attacks that led to the deadly cross-border shelling, referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

The junta occasionally accuses the AA of cooperating with ARSA, a claim the Arakanese ethnic armed group has repeatedly denied.

In an attempt to retake military camps lost to the Arakan Army, the Myanmar military has launched attacks in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, and Paletwa Township, Chin State, in recent days, according to AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha. The military’s combat operations have included the use of heavy artillery and aerial bombings on AA targets, he told DMG.

Bangladeshi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal reportedly said his country would inform the United Nations if Myanmar did not put a stop to its firing near the Bangladesh border.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has already summoned the junta-appointed Myanmar envoy to Dhaka three times over the issue.