The Arakan Army (AA) seized Mrauk-U district police station in Rakhine State at around 9 pm on Tuesday, according to locals and the ethnic armed Brotherhood Alliance.
The Brotherhood Alliance member attacked the police station and the junta’s Thu Taw Ma military base on Sunday, seizing the base on the same day.
Junta forces responded with air and artillery strikes to defend its positions, but police station fell on Tuesday.
The AA is also attacking the Kha Wei hilltop outpost in Paletwa Township, southern Chin State, on the border with Rakhine State, according to the Brotherhood Alliance.
Junta forces have responded to the AA’s offensive in Rakhine by targeting civilian areas including pagodas, temples and heritage monuments in Mrauk-U, the ancient Arakanese capital of the Mrauk U kingdom.
Six civilians, including women and children, were killed when junta forces shelled the Hpayar Paw IDP camp on Tuesday, according to Mrauk-U residents. The victims ranged in age from three years old to 60.
Another six Mrauk-U civilians were killed during the junta bombardment on Sunday and Monday, locals said. The air and artillery strikes also damaged historical sites, they added.
The bodies of a 55-year-old woman and a man aged 30 were found beneath the rubble of their bombed-out Mrauk-U property on Thursday morning.
Mrauk-U’s infantry battalions 540, 377 and 378 and No. 31 Police Battalion are targeting the town’s Archaeological Research Museum, monastery and other religious structures, the AA said in a statement.
“The city, which has been proposed for UNESCO World Heritage status, has suffered extensive damage in recent deliberate attacks by the SAC [junta] forces,” it said.
The assault has destroyed priceless historical artifacts in the Archaeological Museum that are recognized not only as Rakhine heritage but also as prospective world heritage, the statement added.
The AA vowed “effective retaliatory measures against junta forces for their deliberate and vicious destruction of our heritage sites and historical artifacts.”
The parallel civilian National Unity Government (NUG) condemned the deliberate attacks on Mrauk-U’s cultural heritage as a war crime and said it was coordinating with other revolutionary organizations to combat the junta’s terrorist actions.
Around 50,000 residents have fled Mrauk-U as the junta’s bombardment intensifies, according to volunteer rescue teams and locals.
