The chief of Military Operations Command No. 10 (MOC-10) and a dozen of his soldiers were killed in an ambush by the Arakan Army (AA) in the Nyaungyo area of Padaung Township on the Rakhine–Bago border.
The defector-founded Myanmar Defense and Security Institute identified the officer as Colonel Han Lin Aung, a graduate of the elite Defense Service Academy’s 43rd intake, who had been promoted to commander of MOC-10 in October last year.
He was killed when the AA ambushed his column near the strategic Point 666 hill on the morning of Jan. 4, AA spokesman Khaing Thukha told Rakhine-based media.
The Irrawaddy was unable to independently confirm the casualties.
The junta has deployed large troop numbers to the Nyaungyo area to block AA advances into Padaung, which is home to several ordnance factories on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. Reinforcements included battalions under MOC-10, which is headquartered in Kale.
Fighting has intensified around the Nyaungyo stretch of the Rakhine Yoma–Bago road, where the AA is besieging military bases while the regime reinforces positions and launches counteroffensives.
In late December, AA troops reportedly killed some 60 junta troops and arrested a dozen others in a single day of fighting as the regime forces tried to recapture Point 666 from the rebel troops.
The AA controls most of Rakhine State as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring China State and is now concentrating efforts on seizing the Rakhine capital Sittwe as well as Kyaukphyu port, the site of major Chinese investment projects. It is also pressing deeper into central Myanmar, resulting in the current clashes in Bago, Ayeyarwady and Magwe regions.
