The Arakan Army (AA) and allied forces are closing in on the last remaining junta position on the Ann-Padan road linking Rakhine State with neighboring Magwe Region, according to local sources. The strategic hilltop military base on Nat Yay Kan Mountain serves as a critical artillery and air defense hub for the regime.
Resistance forces seized the final junta position guarding the base – the MPT telecoms tower outpost – on June 3.
Nat Yay Kan Mountain rises to 1,587 meters and offers a commanding view over Padan Town in Magwe’s Ngape Township, making it a strategically crucial military position. According to locals and resistance sources, the base has been reinforced with around 500 soldiers, including those who fled the MPT Tower outpost.
Myanmar military defector Zin Yaw said the MPT Tower outpost is just two kilometers from the main base on Nat Yay Kan Mountain. “The Nat Yay Kan base now stands alone,” he said.
Junta troops are also deployed in two villages on the old Pathein-Monywa road near Nat Yay Kan Mountain, according to residents.
“Some of our troops have reached the mountain summit and report that the path is steep and narrow up there,” said a source close to the AA.
AA-led forces began advancing down the Ann-Padan road in January after capturing Rakhine State’s Ann town and its Western Command headquarters in December. They have seized several junta outposts guarding Nat Yay Kan base.
“The Nat Yay Kan air defense base is the junta’s only remaining stronghold. If it falls, [AA-led forces] could gain strategic control over Padan,” said a military analyst.
The AA has yet to report on the ongoing fighting.
Padan is home to Artillery Battalion Headquarters 905 and three artillery battalions.
Ngape Township also hosts the regime’s KaPaSa 14 munitions factory, while KaPaSa 20 is located just 70 km north in Sidoktaya town. Both are among 22 regime weapons factories now in the path of advancing AA-led forces along the west bank of the Irrawaddy River in Magwe and Bago regions.
Minbu, Thayet and Pakokku districts, west of the Irrawaddy River, once formed the northwestern command of the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma. For many years, the area was a communist stronghold under Captain Thet Tun, a Myanmar military defector who rallied the local Asho Chin ethnic group. Fighting in the area ceased after Thet Tun returned to the Myanmar government fold in 1980.
