In retaliation for suffering heavy losses in a skirmish with the Arakan Army yesterday, the junta’s military killed at least six civilians in Rakine State’s Mrauk U and Kyauktaw townships, the ethnic army said in a statement today.
“We will unequivocally take revenge on Light Infantry Battalion 540 for the war crimes it is committing against innocent people,” the statement said.
It said a brief skirmish between the AA and about 50 troops in the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 540 broke out between Sakya Man Aung pagoda and Mrauk U Town yesterday and that the junta battalion lost at least 15 troops. The infantry battalion is based near the town, while the AA troops were moving past the pagoda when the skirmish broke out.
After retreating from the area of the skirmish, troops from Light Infantry Battalion 540 arrested three male civilians and then killed them just before they returned to the battalion’s compound, according to residents of Mrauk U Town and the AA. The men killed after being used as human shields were 28, 35 and 53 years old, residents said.
“They arrested and brought them along the way [back to the town]. Before they entered the Light Infantry Battalion 540 base, they shot them and left their bodies on the ground,” said a resident of Mrauk U town who requested anonymity for safety concerns.
Shells were also fired from the battalion’s base into and around Mrauk U town on Tuesday evening, killing a 50-year-old man in Sin Cha Seik ward and injuring two other people, residents said.
In Kyauktaw Township, another battalion – Light Infantry Battalion 539 – fired artillery shells into Apauk Wa village at about 4 a.m. today, killing two civilians, one 50 years old and the other 70, residents of the village said.
Heavy clashes also continued in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township today as the AA continues fighting to create a “junta-free-zone” in the township. It claimed to have captured more junta outposts in the township yesterday but did not name them or say where they were located.
More than 50,000 residents of the township have fled fighting between junta troops and the AA since the AA ended its ceasefire with the junta in Rakhine State on Nov. 13. Since then, the AA says it has captured more than 150 junta outposts in Rakhine State.
The resumption of fighting in the state was an expansion of Operation 1027, which began on Oct. 27. That operation was launched in northern Shan State by the Brotherhood Alliance, which comprises the AA, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.
The AA is also coordinating with other ethnic armed organizations and People’s Defense Forces of the National Unity Government to fight junta troops in upper Sagaing Region.