Resistance fighters in Chin State teamed up with rebels from the Chin National Army (CNA) last week to overrun a military outpost near Myanmar’s border with India, killing 12 junta soldiers in the attack.
About 200 fighters from the CNA and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), which was formed by civilians who took up arms after the February coup, raided the outpost in Lungler village, Thantlang Township, on Friday, a CDF spokesperson said.
But the military sent a fighter jet to bombard the newly occupied base, forcing the fighters to retreat. The coalition then gathered more fighters and attacked the base again the following evening with a force of around 400.
“We decided to attack the base again at night so that there wouldn’t be an air raid,” the spokesperson said. The battle lasted for around 90 minutes, he added. “We managed to occupy the base by 10pm.”
The coalition suffered eight injuries but no deaths, according to the spokesperson, who added that the fighters seized weapons and ammunition from the outpost before burning it down.
The attack came after the CDF ambushed junta soldiers who were inspecting houses and harassing civilians in Thantlang on Thursday. The CDF said it killed two junta soldiers in that attack.
It is unclear how many soldiers were stationed at the Lungler base. The CDF spokesperson said that five troops deserted the post and fled to India two weeks before the attack, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this.
On Friday, junta soldiers fired shells into Lungler village, which has about 100 houses, said the spokesperson. The villagers had already fled across the border to Mizoram two days earlier following a separate clash in the area, he added.
A military fighter jet was seen flying over the village on Sunday, he said.
Last week the underground National Unity Government declared a “resistance war” against the junta and urged people across the country to support the fight in any way they could.
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Two members of a coalition force of Karenni resistance fighters were killed early Tuesday morning after coming under heavy artillery fire while attacking a military outpost in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Hpruso Township.
The combined force of fighters from the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF) and the Karenni Army (KA) retreated after Si Moe Nel (also known as Aung Naing) and Peter John, both from KNDF Battalion 1, were killed during the assault on the outpost in the village of Kadalar.
A troop member who was involved in the battle told Myanmar Now that the KNDF and the KA—the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party—launched the attack at around 3am.
Fighting continued for five hours, until the Karenni fighters were forced to retreat because they had been outgunned, he said.
“We failed to occupy the outpost. They started shelling us from their Artillery Battalion 102. We still don’t know the number of casualties on the military council’s side,” he added.
He also claimed that there were many soldiers stationed at the outpost, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this information.
Tuesday’s clash marks the first time since the KNDF and the KA joined forces in mid-July that the
Karenni resistance forces have acknowledged the loss of any of their own troops. The only fatalities reported during
previous clashes were on the side of the regime’s forces.
Local armed resistance groups
started clashing with the military in Demoso Township on May 21. On June 15, after thousands of local civilians were displaced, the two sides
entered into a ceasefire agreement at the request of religious leaders.
The ceasefire lasted about a month, until the KNDF joined the KA as it engaged regime forces near the village of Nan Phe in Bawlakhe Township on July 16.
Local resistance groups claim they have killed hundreds of junta troops in recent months. They also accuse the military of killing at least 90 civilians.
More than 100,000 civilians in Karenni State and Pekhon Township in southern Shan State
remain displaced due to the conflict.
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The Myanmar military has stepped up its operations in Sagaing Region, with the junta reportedly deploying extra forces following escalating clashes in Sagaing between regime troops and civilian resistance fighters. Regime reinforcements are reportedly arriving not only by road but by river and air, too, along with heavy weapons.
Observers say that the junta may be planning attacks in Mingin, Kani, Yinmarbin, Pale and Myaung townships along the western banks of the Chindwin River, where armed resistance is especially strong.
Locals reported seeing military vessels carrying hundreds of junta soldiers sailing up and down the Chindwin River since September 12. The vessels also reportedly carried weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles, which have been deployed in Kani Township.
Regime reinforcements have also arrived by road and by helicopter in Kani, Monywa and Mingin.
“There have been an excessive number of junta forces and weapons arriving, many of them in Mingin and Kani townships,” a member of the Mingin People’s Defense Force (PDF) told The Irrawaddy.
Clashes are also intensifying in upper Magwe Region and Chin State, which both neighbor Sagaing. Junta forces have committed mass killings, as well as torching and looting villages in Sagaing.
Armed resistance in those areas has grown from individual villages rising up to clusters of villages rebelling together, said a military analyst who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, thousands of locals have been forced from their homes in Taze, Tabayin and Myaung townships along the eastern banks of the Chindwin River in Sagaing.
The commander of the Pale Township PDF said, “[Resistance fighters] have been fiercely attacking the regime in Mingin, Pale, Yinmarbin and Kani, and lately in Myaung and Yaw. They [the junta] will put pressure on those areas where the resistance is strong. But we will continue to fight them with whatever weapons we have”.
Since August, the military regime has been conducting clearance operations in Sagaing Region, raiding one village after another. Internet services have been cut off in parts of Sagaing since last week, with some places having access only to 2G mobile internet.
Local PDF’s say that the regime has brought in between 500 and 600 troops from Monywa and Kale townships, and most of them are currently deployed in Kani and Yinmarbin.
Over 100 junta reinforcements have also arrived in Mingin, and there are also large numbers of of Pyu Saw Htee, a militia group trained and armed by the junta, in Mingin, said the township PDF. Many locals have fled their homes following the arrival of the junta reinforcements.
Kani Township PDF has warned civilians to evacuate to safe areas following the increase in regime troop deployments.
Regime troops deploying by land, river and air as civilian resistance fighters step up attacks along the banks of the Chindwin River.
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Long before the junta’s February 1 coup, the Rohingya crisis was making headlines in the international media. Today, the issue is still grabbing attention worldwide with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, the stateless Muslim minority from Rakhine State in western Myanmar, in refugee camps in Bangladesh waiting to be repatriated to Myanmar.
Myanmar is facing a lawsuit for the alleged genocide of the Rohingya at the International Court of Justice. To make matters worse, old and new Muslim armed groups are active at the border with Bangladesh again, including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the armed group led by Abdullah Kane that operates like a criminal gang.
The RSO was established in the early 1980s and has frequently attacked security outposts in Maungdaw Township on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, according to historical records.
In the 1990s, Myanmar’s military carried out a large-scale counter offensive against the RSO and the armed group sank into obscurity. However, since the coup, the RSO has started to revive.
In June, a man claiming to be Major Kyaw Myint Tun from the RSO, clad in uniform and with a holstered pistol, shared a video on social media in which he said in Burmese that the armed group would fight the regime for the rights of Rohingya people. The video also shows RSO fighters undergoing military training.
The RSO’s resurgence has led to friction with the ARSA, which came into the spotlight following its attacks on border guard outposts in Maungdaw in 2016 and 2017. The ARSA said it was fighting for the rights of persecuted Rohingya people, but its insurgent acts and killings of Hindus have brought its motives into question.
Muslim villagers in Rakhine State told The Irrawaddy that people who supported the ARSA have been attacked by the RSO, while the ARSA has detained and beaten those it suspects of having ties to the RSO.
On Sept. 2, a village administrator in Pan Taw Pyin Village in Maungdaw was shot dead in what appeared to be an armed robbery. Two men at the administrator’s house were stabbed and seriously wounded.
Villagers said that there is a checkpoint run by border guard police near the village, and that junta soldiers were also staying at the village school that day.
The fact that the military regime is still unable to identify the perpetrators of the attack highlights the lack of security in Maungdaw. On September 9, the Rohingya Nationalist Organization (RNO), a Muslim group based in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, said that the murder and armed robbery was committed by the armed group led by Abdullah Kane.
The group was also responsible for kidnapping and robbing the Padin Village administrator in August, as well as a furniture business owner and a former village administrator in May, said the RNO, which also accused the gang of other similar crimes.
In its statement, the RNO, also urged the Arakan Army (AA) to crush Abdullah Kane’s gang. Abdullah Kane, 55, was born in a village in southern Maungdaw, and is believed to have hideouts in Muslim villages and the Mayu Mountains in Rakhine.
A man who claims to be Abdullah Kane said in a video recently circulated on social media that he grew up being oppressed by the party cadres of his village during the rule of the Burma Socialist Programme Party led by the late dictator Ne Win. He added that he escaped from prison after he was unfairly arrested by village authorities and military intelligence during the previous junta’s rule. He warned that he would give ‘lessons’ to any Muslim administrators and businessmen who cooperate with the authorities.
It is an interesting fact that Abdullah Kane is still at large, despite the activities of the junta-controlled border guard force in Rakhine and the AA, which has been able to extend its influence over most of northern Rakhine State since the coup. His gang has also been able to operate without being confronted by either the ARSA or the RSO.
Locals said that Abdullah Kane was twice captured by authorities but then released, suggesting that he may have ties with the border guard police in Rakhine. Some locals have said that some of the murders and robberies his group is accused of were carried out by drug gangs in Maungdaw, but that Abdullah Kane has got the blame because of his previous activities.
There have been attempts by the AA to apprehend Abdullah Kane, but they appear not to have been serious efforts because Abdullah Kane has targeted only his fellow Muslims and has not touched ethnic Rakhine villages, said a Rakhine source who is close to the AA.
After agreeing an unofficial ceasefire with the Myanmar military last November, the AA has established its authority in Rakhine, implementing its own administrative and judicial systems. Muslim villagers have been included in the AA’s administrative mechanism, said observers.
There are also Muslim militia groups, tasked with law enforcement, in parts of northern Rakhine that have been trained and armed by the AA. But there is no such group in Maungdaw Township, where border guard police stations are concentrated in northern Rakhine.
When the AA and Myanmar military were clashing, the fighting took place mostly in Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships, and barely touched Maungdaw.
Muslim armed groups have been infiltrating into Maungdaw from Bangladesh, according to observers, where they are out of the reach of both Myanmar’s border guard forces and the AA.
At least three Rohingya armed organizations are believed to be operating along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Rakhine State.
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