The Arakan Army (AA), a Myanmar ethnic minority insurgent group, has claimed taking management of a port city in a blow to the nation’s navy junta.
The armed group seized management of the city after greater than two months of intense clashes with junta troops, they mentioned late Wednesday, including that it “completely controlled” Pauktaw, a city of 20,000 individuals near a vital deepwater port within the capital of western Rakhine state.
AA fighters briefly seized Pauktaw in November, shattering a fragile cease-fire that had largely held for the reason that navy coup in 2021.
The junta has used artillery and naval ships to bombard the city nearly day by day since, and strafed it with gunfire from helicopters, residents have instructed AFP.
New Google Earth photographs of Pauktaw confirmed a block of the downtown space lowered nearly solely to rubble and injury to a number of buildings close to its harbor.
Several buildings within the police station compound have been destroyed too.
Junta troops had left the city by boat on the night of Jan. 19, a supply near the AA instructed AFP, requesting anonymity.
AA fighters had arrange checkpoints across the city and on Thursday exchanged hearth with a navy naval vessel, the supply mentioned.
AFP was unable to substantiate the AA declare, and communications with Pauktaw remained patchy.
A supply near the AA instructed AFP earlier this week that its fighters have been conducting “clearance operations” within the city.
The junta has not commented on current clashes in Pauktaw.
Thousands displaced
Around 18,000 individuals had been displaced from the world resulting from combating, the United Nations mentioned in November.
Pauktaw is 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of the state capital Sittwe, dwelling to a deepwater port partly financed by India because it seeks to deepen financial linkages with Myanmar.
Earlier this week, Myanmar’s chambers of commerce hosted talks with an Indian business delegation on “upgrading” operations at Sittwe port, junta-backed media reported Thursday.
Travel between Sittwe and Pauktaw was severely restricted by new navy gates and checkpoints, a Pauktaw resident presently in Sittwe instructed AFP on Thursday, requesting anonymity for safety causes.
In its Wednesday assertion, the AA mentioned “intense” clashes have been ongoing in Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw and Rathedaung townships in Rakhine, with out giving particulars.
The AA has fought an on-and-off battle for years, looking for extra autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine inhabitants.
It is one in all dozens of ethnic minority armed teams which have battled Myanmar’s navy since independence from Britain in 1948.
Some teams need higher autonomy, whereas others merely need the precise to run the profitable commerce in jade, medication and timber of their territory.
The clashes in Rakhine come because the navy and ethnic minority armed teams in northern Shan state accuse one another of breaching a China-brokered cease-fire.
Fighting had raged alongside the border with China since late October, with the navy dropping management of a number of cities and important commerce crossings to its northern neighbour.
Source: www.dailysabah.com