Powerful ethnic Rakhine armed group the Arakan Army (AA) launched attacks on the junta’s Border Guard Police (BGP) outposts in Rathedaung Township in northern Rakhine State in western Myanmar early Monday morning. The attacks pile further pressure on the regime, which is currently struggling with an array of resistance offensives in other parts of the country.
The AA began by attacking the BGP outposts in Done Pike and Chein Khar Li villages, located beside the Angumaw-Maungdaw Road, at around 5 a.m. on Monday. Rathedaung residents said the AA seized the outpost in Done Pike a few minutes after launching the attack.
“The AA started by launching the attack on the outpost in Done Pike and it’s been confirmed that Done Pike has already been seized,” said a Rathedaung resident.
The residents said the clashes are ongoing, adding that villagers are fleeing as the junta’s military is continuously firing artillery shells in the area.
In Rakhine State, BGP outposts are manned by both junta police and junta military troops.
The AA is a member of an ethnic alliance that has been fighting against the regime across northern Shan State since late last month. Some AA troops have been involved in fighting in the area since then.
Monday’s attacks on the BGP outposts in northern Rakhine represent the AA’s first offensive action against the regime in Rakhine since its informal truce with the junta last year.
Military tensions have been rising in Rakhine following the junta’s recent mobilizing of troops.
The junta has been beefing up its forces in Rakhine towns and cities since the first week of November, as the AA is taking part in the Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027 offensive, which has seized at least 130 junta targets in Shan and Kachin states and northern Sagaing and Mandalay regions over past two weeks.
The sudden strike by the AA in Rathedaung on Monday morning follows the junta’s attack on AA bases near Laiza Township, Kachin State at around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. The tripartite Brotherhood Alliance said the junta fired artillery shells at the AA bases in Laiza yesterday but did not reveal further details.
The Irrawaddy reached out for comment to AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha this morning but got no answer.
However, conflict analysts said the junta’s attack on AA bases in Munglaikhet near Laiza, which is home to the Kachin Independence Army’s headquarters in Kachin State, could have been what sparked this sudden attack.
Due to the ongoing clashes in Rathedaung, the junta has ordered a blockade of all roads connecting the major towns and cities in Rakhine State.
“The Sittwe-Yangon highway, the Angumaw-Maungdaw road, and the highway connecting all the towns between Mrauk-U and Sittwe, all are closed now,” said a Sittwe resident.
He said that the junta has also ordered highway bus terminals closed and banned all regular passenger boats from operating, stranding many people at boat and bus terminals in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe.
It has also ordered the closure of all rice shops in the markets as a way of cutting off the AA’s food supply, said Sittwe residents.
As the AA has already seized the Done Pike outposts, heavy clashes are ongoing in and around Chein Khar Li Village.
A Chein Khar Li villager said on Monday morning that he and his family had to flee into the jungle.
“We ran into the jungle right away, as we heard gunshots. Now artillery shells are still being fired and the clashes are still occurring,” he said.
