The Arakan Army (AA) arrested and provided medical care to two high-ranking junta military officers and found two others dead, while another is missing after recent clashes in Rakhine State and in Paletwa Township in southern Chin State, the ethnic armed group said in a statement.
The AA captured Lieutenant Colonel Nyi Nyi Win, the commander of the junta’s No. 3 Tactical Operations Command under the No. 9 Military Operations Command (MOC) based in Kyauktaw Township, on Jan. 16.
According to the AA, when its troops found him at the scene of a clash in Kyauktaw Township, the lieutenant colonel was dying, having sustained severe head and chest wounds. He was saved by AA medical personnel, however, it said.
On Feb. 7 and 8, heavy clashes broke out between the AA and the junta’s naval boats and army troops near Apauk Wa Village, Kyauktaw Township. The vessels were retreating down the Kaladan River, carrying defeated regime forces from Kyauktaw.
AA fighters pulled Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, 51, the commander of No. 9 MOC, and some of his troops from the river, saving them from drowning after the boats they traveling in were destroyed and sunk by the AA, according to its statement.
The AA was unable to save some soldiers, including some high-ranking officers, wounded in other clashes. Colonel Min Min Tun, commander of Light Infantry Division 11, was among them. His body was found at the base of Light Infantry Battalion 377 in Mrauk-U Township when the AA seized it on Feb. 7.
In the second week of December, after mounting a successful offensive against junta military strongholds, the AA found the body of Lieutenant Colonel Banyar Paing Soe, the commander of the Hnonebu strategic hilltop outpost in Paletwa Township, southern Chin State.
The AA said it was unable to confirm whether some other high-ranking junta officers were dead, or were alive and had fled. Brigadier General Zin Myo Swe, commander of the No. 19 MOC based in Paletwa Township, is among them. The AA said it has not been able to confirm if he escaped or was killed.
“Among junta military and police troops and their family members who have been arrested and are now prisoners of war, some have suffered severe injuries. Our medics have been trying their best to save their lives,” the AA said in its statement.
Although the AA has been providing medical care, sometimes life-saving care, to arrested junta troops and families, the propaganda channels of the junta and some media backed by the junta’s military are spreading rumors that the AA is torturing and murdering prisoners of war.
Intense clashes are ongoing in Rakhine State and on Thursday the AA launched a major offensive against junta military bases in Rathedaung Township.
It is also preparing to launch an offensive against the Western Military Command based in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, from where the junta commands all the military operations, airstrikes and naval attacks against the AA across northern Rakhine State.
According to sources close to the AA and some Sittwe residents, the AA has warned the junta’s military officers at the Western Military Command to surrender.
As part of Operation 1027 conducted by the Brotherhood Alliance of three ethnic armies across northern Shan State, the AA has conducted a large-scale offensive against regime targets across northern Rakhine State and Paletwa Township in neighbouring Chin State since Nov. 13 last year.
The AA has seized over 170 junta strongholds and some five towns in Rakhine and Chin states during the operation, causing the junta humiliating defeats.
