Fighting for Rakhine State’s Ann town continued Thursday as the remaining regime forces defending the junta’s Western Military Command (WMC) clung on with the support of artillery and warplanes, the Arakan Army (AA) said.
The ethnic rebel army has seized over 30 regime bases in Ann Township, including several battalion headquarters, with only the WMC headquarters left to be seized.
The AA said Thursday it needs to defeat only a few more positions at the WMC, where a few hundred regime forces were barely managing to hold off its offensive. Its progress has been slowed by regime artillery units based in the Rakhine Mountain Range, which are relentlessly shelling the clash site at the junta stronghold.
The regime’s shelling has reportedly killed and injured many of its own forces, the AA said. Aerial video released by the AA on Thursday shows the WMC headquarters building and nearby areas being hit by explosives.
Meanwhile, junta warplanes are bombing the clash site. On Monday and Tuesday, several dozen regime forces and their families surrendered to the ethnic army.
The AA again urged the remaining regime forces defending the base to surrender so they could reunite with their families.
“We guarantee the lives of those regime forces who surrender to us,” the AA said.
If the WMC is seized, it would become the second of Myanmar’s 14 regional military commands lost by the regime, following the Brotherhood Alliance’s capture of the Northeastern Command in the northern Shan State capital Lashio in early August after a month-long battle.
The AA also said that its troops continued to engage in intense fighting with regime forces in Gwa town in southernmost Rakhine State, killing many and seizing a large haul of weapons and ammunition.
Rakhine media reported that AA troops also seized two more military checkpoints on the Gwa-Ngathaingchaung Road in the Rakhine Mountain Range, blocking the regime from sending reinforcements to Gwa by road from Ayeyarwady Region.
The junta is fortifying its bases and Ngathaingchaung town in Yegyi Township, Ayeyarwady Region, according to the reports.
Meanwhile, the regime on Wednesday replaced Major General Wai Lin as the commander of its Southwestern Military Command headquarters in the Ayeyarwady Region capital Pathein, with Brigadier General Soe Kyaw Htet.
Observers said the regime fears the Arakan Army will advance into Ayeyarwady Region after liberating the whole of Rakhine State.
The AA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance of three powerful ethnic armies that has seized most of northern Shan State including the capital Lashio since launching anti-regime Operation 1027 in October last year.
The AA expanded the operation to its home state in November last year and has since seized 12 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships plus a number of other towns, as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State.
