Junta, AA forces vie for control of Minbya

By Admin 12 Jan 2024

DMG Newsroom
12 January 2024, Minbya

Myanmar’s military regime, which has lost military outposts including tactical command bases due to the offensive attacks launched by the Arakan Army (AA), is fighting back with massive force that has involved urban battlefields and residential targeting to extents not seen in previous conflicts between the two sides.

The military has been responding to the AA’s offensive with joint army, navy and air forces since January 10 to prevent the ethnic armed group from seizing Minbya town.

The military responded to the AA’s attack with a Mi-35 helicopter and Myanmar Navy warships, the Three Brotherhood Alliance said in a statement on January 11.

The AA has been launching attacks on the military’s Minbya-based Light Infantry Battalion Nos. 379, 380 and 541 since the morning of January 10, the Three Brotherhood Alliance said.

Some homes were reduced to ashes as mortar shells fired by the Myanmar Navy vessels landed and exploded in Minbya’s Minbargyi Ward. Regime soldiers also entered Minbya and torched some homes, the Three Brotherhood Alliance added.

Minbya market and hundreds of homes were burned to the ground by the junta arson attack and shelling, said an eyewitness.

“The regime forces constantly fire mortar shells and conduct airstrikes on residential areas. The regime also sent reinforcements to Minbya. Regime soldiers torched many homes in Minbya. Almost all residents in Minbya fled to safer locations,” the eyewitness added.

The junta artillery strikes on Minbya and nearby villages killed a local resident from Pharpyo Village and injured six people including a Buddhist monk on January 10.

Family members are unable to contact some elderly people who were trapped by the fighting in Minbya, according to locals.

“Some elderly people have been stuck in Minbya. We cannot contact them because their mobile phones were switched off. Almost all residents in Minbya have already fled their homes,” said a resident of Minbya.

Clashes between the military and AA have been reported in Sittwe, Maungdaw, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Pauktaw, Minbya, Myebon, Ann, Taungup, Kyaukphyu and Ramree townships.

The AA seized nearly 150 Border Guard Force (BGF) outposts and police stations abandoned by junta troops, as well as two tactical command bases, during the latest hostilities in Arakan State. 

Fighting between the military and AA is also escalating in Chin State’s Paletwa Township.