Arakan Army Leader Claims Myanmar Military Systematically Planned to ‘Crush’ His Group.

RADIO FREE ASIA 
2019-04-17

Arakan Army soldiers pass through a field in western Myanmar's Rakhine state in an undated photo.

Photo courtesy of Arakan Army News and Information

The leader of the Arakan Army based in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state said Wednesday that the military had systematically planned to “crush” his group ahead of hostilities that escalated between the two sides in January, and denied official claims of its involvement in terrorism and drug trafficking.

Maj. Gen. Tun Myat Naing, commander in chief of the AA, told reporters in Wa state's Panghsang township that crack troops from Myanmar’s military received special training more than a year ahead of being deployed to Rakhine state, where they engaged with AA soldiers in early January, following AA attacks on police outposts in northern Rakhine that killed 13 officers.

Arakan Army attacks police headquarters.

MYANMAR TIMES

NYAN LYNN AUNG | 11 APR 2019

Myanmar soldiers march during a parade commemorating Armed Forces Day in Nay Pyi Taw on March 27. Photo - EPA

Suspected Arakan Army fighters attacked the police regiment headquarters in Mrauk-U township in Rakhine State late Tuesday, and local residents said there were many fatalities.

Colonel Win Zaw Oo, head of the Tatmadaw (military) Western Regional Military Command, said on Wednesday the AA attacked police headquarters with “overwhelming force,” and the military provided the police with reinforcements.

Myanmar rebels storm police base in Rakhine state amid fresh clashes in temple town.

REUTERS
APRIL 10th, 2019

YANGON (Reuters) - Arakan Army rebels overran a police base in Rakhine state, killing two officers and one of their wives, the Myanmar government said on Wednesday, as fresh fighting broke out in a historic Buddhist temple town popular with tourists.

The Information Ministry said around 200 insurgents stormed a police headquarters in Mrauk U before being repelled, but that they abducted four women and three children as they left.

AA Kills 20 Soldiers in N. Rakhine’s Ancient Capital Mrauk-U.

The Irrawaddy
10 April 2019
By MOE MYINT 

Police and Army personnel jointly patrol along a main road in downtown Mrauk-U in March 2019. / Moe Myint / The Irrawaddy

YANGON—About 20 government soldiers were killed when the Arakan Army staged attacks on two Myanmar Army artillery bases on the outskirts of Mrauk-U in northern Rakhine State on Tuesday night, the armed ethnic group’s deputy chief claimed.

Brigadier-General Nyo Tun Aung said the AA attacked the No. 31 Police Regiment because troops from Light Infantry Division (LID) No. 22 were firing 105-mm howitzer shells almost daily from the base and another Army base in Lay Hnyin Taung about 8 km from downtown Mrauk-U.

Myanmar Army Launches Helicopter And Jet Strikes in Fierce Fighting in Rakhine State.

RADIO FREE ASIA

2019-04-10

A view of the entrance to the police battalion headquarters in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, March 2019.

The Myanmar military unleashed helicopter and jet strikes in response to the rebel Arakan Army's (AA) on-the-ground attacks on a police residential unit and battalion headquarters believed to contain heavy arms belonging to government troops in war-ravaged Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township, with spokesmen for the two forces releasing competing, imprecise casualty counts.

Rohingya Survivors in Rathedaung Yet to Receive Aid from ICRC.

ROHINGYA TODAY

Yan Naing | Apr 07, 2019

Rathedaung — Rohingya Genocide Survivors in northern Rathedaung Township have been affected the most by the ongoing fightings between Myanmar military and Rakhine rebels (or Arakan Army) but are yet to receive humanitarian aids from ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), survivors say.

Myanmar Army Helicopter Attack Kills at Least 10 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

RADIO FREE ASIA
2019-04-04

A Myanmar border guard policeman stands near a group of Rohingya Muslims in front of their homes in a village in Buthidaung township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, Jan. 25, 2019.

AFP

A helicopter attack by Myanmar’s army on Wednesday killed at least 10 Rohingya Muslims and injured more than a dozen others in violence-wracked Rakhine state, the latest civilian casualties in the armed conflict between government soldiers and the rebel Arakan Army (AA), local villagers told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

New curfew imposed in Rakhine State.

MYANMAR TIMES 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 03, 2019

NYAN LYNN AUNG

Rakhine ethnic people travel by motorbike in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar. Photo - EPA

A curfew was imposed from 9pm to 5am in five townships in northern Rakhine State on Tuesday following clashes between the Tatmadaw (military) and Arakan Army (AA), according to the state government.

The state issued a statement signed by Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Phone Tint on Monday that said the curfew had been ordered to enforce the administration, rules and regulations of the government as well as to protect the state’s businesses and economy.

“There is a public curfew in the late evening,” said a state official who asked not to be named.

Decoding The Arakan Army: Insurgent Strategies And Tactics – Analysis.

eurasiareview
March 30, 2019
By IPCS 
By Angshuman Choudhury*

Emblem of Arakan Army. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Over the past four months, the Arakan Army (AA)—a Rakhine Ethnic Armed Organisation (EAO)—has emerged as a formidable insurgent actor in western Myanmar, particularly Chin and Rakhine states. The AA’s insurgency is based on a mix of conventional and subversive tactics, aimed at gaining strategic dominance in the short term and political-territorial control in the medium-to-long term. Much of its future strategies and operational design will depend on its relationship with the local population and the frequency and degree of the military’s response.

The Arakan Army and the ‘storm of the revolution’.

Frontier
MYANMAR

Friday, March 29, 2019

Arakan Army deputy chief Brigadier-General Nyo Tun Aung during an interview at the group's base near Laiza. (Hkun Lat)

The deputy leader of the Arakan Army tells Frontier in the border town of Laiza in Kachin State about the group’s shift in focus to Rakhine State and why the Rakhine people may have to endure more suffering in the years ahead.

By YE MON | FRONTIER

Photos HKUN LAT

THE SECURITY situation in Rakhine State continues to worsen as fighting between a defiant Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw spreads to more townships, claiming more lives on both sides and displacing thousands of frightened and anxious villagers.

Shortly before the latest flare-up in fighting, Frontier interviewed the Arakan Army’s deputy chief, Brigadier-General Nyo Tun Aung, near Laiza, the town on the Chinese border where the Kachin Independence Organisation has its headquarters.

Civilians hit by Rakhine fighting.

MYANMAR TIMES
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019

By CHAN THAR

More than 50 civilians have been killed or are missing due to fighting between the Tatmadaw (military) and Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State, according to an investigation by the Arakan National Party (ANP).

Led by ANP Vice Chair Daw Aye Nu Sein, a nine-member commission set up on March 20 investigated the fighting in Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya townships.

The ANP said it would submit a report of its findings next week.

Fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine Estimated to Have Displaced 22,000 People

RFA 
2019-03-27

Members of the Arakan National Party conduct a field visit to a displacement camp in western Myanmar's Rakhine state in an undated photo.Photo courtesy of Htun Aung Kyaw

Intense fighting this week between Myanmar forces and the rebel Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine state's Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships has displaced 2,000 villagers, raising the prospect of additional food and water shortages in the war-torn region, relief and disaster management workers said Wednesday.

Myanmar army urges civilian tip-offs on Arakan Army in Rakhine

The Daily Star
Tuesday, "March 26, 2019"

 FILE PHOTO: A Myanmar soldier patrols in a boat at the Mayu river near Buthidaung in the north of Rakhine state, Myanmar September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

The Tatmadaw requested people to give tip-offs about Arakan Army (AA) to respective administrative organizations and security organizations if the AA entered their towns, wards and villages to avoid further bloodshed in Rakhine State, it announced on March 23.

Arkan Army camps on Myanmar, Bangladesh borders, worry India

DNA

Sumit Kumar Singh

Updated: Mar 26, 2019

Myanmar Picture for representational purpose , Reuters

India has found Arkan Rohingiya Salvation Army (ARSA) has set up new bases at Myanmar and Bangladesh where cadre are being trained to launch massive attacks on security forces and big infrastructural projects. As per the intelligence report, some camps are situated very close to Rohingya refugee camps in Cox Bazar in Bangladesh. Their target are infrastructural projects between India and Myanmar.

Tatmadaw likens Arakan Army demands to ‘a child daydreaming’

Frontier 
MYANMAR
Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Major-General Tun Tun Nyi attends an earlier press conference in Yangon on February 23. (Thuya Zaw | Frontier)

By SU MYAT MON | FRONTIER

YANGON — The Tatmadaw has blamed the Arakan Army for an escalation in fighting in Rakhine State, with military spokespeople accusing the armed group of harming civilians and labelling its demands “impossible”.

“With the thoughts of a child daydreaming, some of the armed groups are asking for what is impossible,” Major-General Soe Naing Oo, chair of the Tatmadaw’s True News Information Team, said at a press briefing in Nay Pyi Taw on Monday to discuss recent fighting with the AA. “Don’t ask for impossible things,” he said.

Myanmar army urges civilian tip-offs on Arakan Army in Rakhine.

The Daily Star
11:05 AM, March 26, 2019

FILE PHOTO: A Myanmar soldier patrols in a boat at the Mayu river near Buthidaung in the north of Rakhine state, Myanmar September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

Eleven Media Group, Myanmar

The Tatmadaw requested people to give tip-offs about Arakan Army (AA) to respective administrative organizations and security organizations if the AA entered their towns, wards and villages to avoid further bloodshed in Rakhine State, it announced on March 23.

Tatmadaw warns public not to believe Arakan Army.

MYANMAR TIMES
CHAN THAR | TUESDAY, 26 MAR 2019

The Tatmadaw (military) has not killed any civilians or damaged any of their property during its clashes with the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State, Major General Tun Tun Nyi of the True News agency said.

“Everyone can see that the AA is trying to create racial conflict between the Rakhine and Bamar races. (Government spokesperson) U Zaw Htay has said that the situation in Rakhine has become a threat to the Union. The Tatmadaw has taken measures against the insurgents, but we are not always in a position protect the lives and property of people. We urge people to be cautious and not be exploited by the insurgents,” he said.

Gunfire wounds six in temple town.

THE Star ONLINE
Wednesday, 20 Mar 2019

YANGON: At least six people were wounded in firing as Myanmar soldiers hunted ethnic Rakhine insurgents in the western town of Mrauk U, residents said, while the military issued a statement saying a convoy was ambushed entering the historic temple town.

Rakhine leader gets 20 years for treason.

THE Star ONLINE
Wednesday, 20 Mar 2019

Sittwe (Myanmar): A Myanmar court sentenced a prominent ethnic Rakhine leader to 20 years in jail for treason, a verdict likely to intensify anger amid fighting between the ethnic group and the army.

Eight injured in Mrauk U violence.

Frontier 
MYANMAR
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
By AFP

People look at an unexploded rocket in Mrauk U township in Rakhine State on March 16. (AFP)

YANGON — Fighting between Myanmar's military and the Arakan Army in Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the Rakhine kingdom, has left at least eight injured, scaring tourists and sparking fears that the historical monuments are under threat.