Fighting has intensified in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw town since the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) launched an onslaught against the last junta battalion defending the frontier town in western Myanmar on Monday, according to sources close to the AA.
The AA is conducting a fierce assault on the headquarters of the 5th Border Guard Police Battalion on the outskirts of Maungdaw, and against junta troops deployed in the town, said a Maungdaw resident close to the AA.
“The fighting is fierce. I heard many [junta soldiers] were injured or captured in the attack on Battalion No. 5. Some retreated into the town to join fellow soldiers and Muslim armed men deployed in the town,” he said.
Muslim militia groups such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army and Rohingya Solidarity Organization, as well as Muslim forced conscripts, are fighting alongside the regime, Maungdaw residents said.
Fortify Rights reported last week that Rohingya militia groups had abducted thousands of Rohingya from refugee camps in Bangladesh and sold them to the Myanmar military regime as conscripts since the regime enforced the national conscription law in February.
The regime has also forcibly conscripted Rohingya residents of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe in Rakhine, local media reported.
The regime has been providing close air and artillery support to defend its last battalion in Maungdaw town, residents said.
Other Border Guard Police battalions and junta positions in Maungdaw Township fell in June. Since then, the AA has surrounded Maungdaw town and the 5th Border Guard Police Battalion.
