The Arakan Army reports seizing a junta defensive position in Ngape Township, Magwe Region this weekend, killing several dozen solders as it expands operations beyond its home state of Rakhine.
Junta reinforcements from the 99th Light Infantry Division (LID) arrived on 28 military trucks to take up a defensive position at Gote-see-yoe village on the Ann-Padan road near the Rakhine-Magwe border last Wednesday.
AA troops raided the position last Friday, killing over 60 junta soldiers and capturing others, according to sources on the ground. They also seized a large cache of weapons and ammunition.
Junta forces withdrew to a hill northeast of the village on Saturday, but updates on the fighting were unavailable as of press time.
At least three local resistance groups are reportedly attacking junta reinforcements along the Ann-Padan road in Ngape Township. The groups are also blocking and attacking regime forces as they flee the AA’s border offensive.
Magwe hosts over a dozen of the junta’s ordnance factories, known by the Burmese acronym KaPaSa. KaPaSa 14, which produces missiles and electronic printed circuit boards (PCBs), is located in Ngape town.

Beyond lie six more ordnance factories – KaPaSa 2, 10, 12, 13, 20 and 21 – on the west bank of the Irrawaddy in Magwe Region.
Troops under the 99th LID were dispatched to Magwe starting December 6 as the junta struggled to defend its Western Command in Ann Township on the Rakhine-Magwe border. Over 1,300 junta soldiers were reportedly dispatched to the border as of Jan. 29, but only around 700 remain after hundreds were killed in action, surrendered or fled, according to sources on the ground.
The AA has now seized 14 out of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, as well as Paletwa township in neighboring Chin State, since launching a major anti-regime offensive in November 2023.
It has also been making rapid advances in Bago, Magwe and Ayeyarwady regions.