Myanmar’s military carried out multiple airstrikes in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township on Sunday following the fall of another base to the Arakan Army (AA), according to locals.
Residents of the area near the Kyein Chaung tactical base in Maungdaw said they heard loud explosions at around 4am on Sunday, a day after the base was overrun by AA forces.
“Jets dropped bombs on the hills to the east of the base. We couldn’t see how many there were, although we could hear them. They dropped six or seven bombs, so we were very scared,” said a local man.
“Our houses were shaking from the sheer sound of the explosions, and it felt as if our eardrums were going to burst,” he added.
In a statement, the AA said that it had taken control of the base, located on a hill near the town of Kyein Chaung, within an hour of mounting an assault on it at around 6:30 am on Saturday.
A large but unspecified number of junta soldiers were killed in the raid and several more were taken prisoner, according to the statement. A large amount of ammunition was also seized, it added.
The base in question is located on the May Yu Taung Kyaw road, which connects the towns of Kyein Chaung and Goke Pi. There are also a number of villages in the area, including Min Gyi Aung and Yan Aung Pyin.
The airstrikes on Sunday mostly targeted the hills east of the base, as well as the abandoned villages of Hin Gyar and Doe Tan, said locals.
“They dropped the bombs on the places where they thought that the AA forces were hiding, but it was the people living here who were actually the most startled,” said one local villager.
According to a resident of Laungdon, a village about 5km west of the Kyein Chaung base, several of the bombs landed in Doe Tan, a large Rohingya village whose inhabitants fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after coming under attack by the military in 2017.
“The bombs fell near the mosque in Doe Tan, which is about 3km from here,” he said.
Late last month, the AA captured a base in Maungdaw near Milestone 40 on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, killing 19 junta troops and capturing one, the group said in a statement released at the time.
On July 18, the AA also attacked a border guard police vehicle about 5km from the Kyein Chaung base. Ten junta personnel were killed and another 14, including a police major, were taken prisoner, according to sources.
Fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA has intensified in recent weeks, after hostilities resumed earlier this year following a ceasefire that began in late 2020 after two years of fierce fighting.
Clashes have been reported in several townships in northern Rakhine State, including Maungdaw, Rathedaung, and Mrauk-U, as well as in southern Chin State’s Paletwa Township, over the past month.
