Myanmar military shells Rakhine state during clashes
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Myanmar’s military is finishing up sustained assaults utilizing fighter jets to retake management of main cities from ethnic armed teams, fighters and residents mentioned on Wednesday.
On November 15, the Arakan Army entered Pok Taw, a city of 20,000 individuals close to an necessary deep-sea port within the capital of western Rakhine state.
It opens a brand new entrance in assaults by a coalition of ethnic minorities throughout northern Myanmar, stunning the nation’s military authorities and slicing off commerce routes with neighboring China, leaving greater than 330,000 individuals displaced since final month. There is.
Pautaw has been one of many predominant battlegrounds, with residents contacted by AFP on Wednesday reporting heavy combating in and across the city, 25 kilometers from the provincial capital Sittwe.
“They (the junta) are continuously firing heavy weapons into the town,” one resident advised AFP by telephone on situation of anonymity for safety causes.
“Yesterday, jet fighters dropped two bombs and a fire broke out,” mentioned a resident who had evacuated to a close-by village, including that the fireplace was nonetheless burning.
AFP information company reported that combating has been happening in Pok Taw for the previous two weeks. However, testimonies from residents and statements from the Arakan Army (AA) supplied essentially the most detailed account of the battle for management of the city.
Sittwe residents mentioned the military was shelling Pok Taw from bases round Sittwe.
“They are shelling Sittwe into other towns, especially Pok Tau, every day and night,” a resident advised AFP on situation of anonymity.
Another resident mentioned, “I can not sleep effectively at night time as a result of I get up in the course of the night time to the sound of shelling.”
Footage printed on the AA’s Telegram account confirmed smoke rising from Pok Taw and included gunshots.
The AA mentioned it was nonetheless “rescuing” trapped civilians.
The United Nations mentioned 18,000 Pok Taw residents had already been evacuated from the city.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun mentioned on Tuesday that troops have been combating round Pok Tau, however gave no particulars.
The AA has been combating intermittent wars for years for autonomy within the Rakhine homeland close to the Bangladeshi border.
It is certainly one of dozens of armed ethnic teams which have fought Myanmar’s military since independence from Britain in 1948.
Some teams search higher autonomy, whereas others merely search the precise to conduct profitable trades resembling jade, medication and timber inside their territory.
Last month, the AA teamed up with the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Ta’an National Liberation Army (TNLA) to hold out assaults in opposition to the military regime throughout northern Shan State, which borders China.
Analysts say the present combating represents the junta’s largest military problem since seizing energy in a 2021 coup.
About 200 civilians, together with youngsters, have been killed for the reason that assaults started on October 27, in response to the United Nations.
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Source: guardian.ng