The junta’s military has started dropping more powerful and destructive bombs on the coastal town of Ramree in Rakhine State as part of what has been described a decision to destroy the town, the Arakan Amy (AA) said.
A public hospital and the town’s Myoma market were destroyed after junta fighter jets began dropping more powerful bombs on the town and areas around it on Tuesday afternoon, the AA said, adding that civilian homes were also destroyed.
The AA said junta jets dropped 500-pound and other bombs on Tuesday that were more destructive than those previously used.
Three airstrikes by a junta jet on the town’s Inn Taung ward also destroyed a convent for Buddhist nuns on Tuesday morning, the AA said.
Clashes between the AA and junta troops began in Ramree township in mid-December last year when AA troops clashed with regime forces stationed at the Aung Chan Thar hilltop pagoda south of the town.
Since then, the junta has bombed the town frequently from air, sea and land.
On Tuesday, regime bases in Rakhine State also shelled residential areas of towns and villages in Ponnagyun, Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships and the state capital Sittwe.
An entire residential ward of Ponnagyun town, Alal Su, was incinerated by regime troops stationed at a nearby hilltop base on Tuesday, the AA said.
It also said it was continuing its effort to seize the junta’s 9th Central Military Training School near Kan Ni Village in Minbya Township on Tuesday. It has been attacking the base since Saturday.
The AA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance which launched the anti-regime offensive Operation 1027 across northern Shan State on Oct. 27 last year. The coordinated attacks by the three members of the alliance saw hundreds of junta bases and outposts seized as well as about 20 towns and vital trade routes with China.
The operation was halted in early January after the alliance agreed to a China-brokered ceasefire deal with the regime.
However, the AA widened the operation to Rakhine State on Nov. 13 last year. It has seized more than 170 junta strongholds as well as six towns in Rakhine State and neighboring Chin State.
The AA also has urged regime forces in their remaining bases in the western state to surrender, telling them it is escalating attacks on regime targets and that it will not stop till it seizes all of them.
The junta has reportedly shut down the state capital Sittwe, which AA troops are poised to attack. It has blocked all entrances to the town, according to Rakhine media. The only way into the town is by flight, the reports say. Junta forces, however, have arrested and interrogated 600 passengers
who flew to Sittwe from Yangon, Rakhine media reported.
