Arakan Army fighters. / The Irrawaddy
Clashes broke out between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Paletwa Township, Chin State, on Thursday after an attack on a junta outpost.
The AA attacked the hilltop base near Temawa village to the east of the Kaladan River in a pre-dawn raid.
Junta troops at Meewa Hill and near Tinma village shelled the area and tensions remain high in the township, according to residents.
“Deafening shelling started this morning. I heard the AA seized the Temawa outpost,” a Paletwa resident told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
The regime bombed the hill with a fighter jet and a helicopter on Thursday, according to residents.
The Temawa outpost overlooks the Paletwa-Kyauktaw gravel road. Tarring was abandoned after fighting broke out in 2018.
A Taungup resident told The Irrawaddy that shelling was audible.
The new jetty in western Taungup was built by the regime after last year’s coup for trade with Bangladesh.
Since early August the AA has been fighting junta troops in northern Maungdaw Township and Paletwa. The ethnically Rakhine armed group has reportedly seized five junta outposts in Paletwa and two in Maungdaw, along with many weapons.
The AA on Wednesday warned that major clashes could break out across Rakhine as the regime is bringing in reinforcements and weapons by military ships, trucks and helicopters but also civilian ferries and buses. AA troops would carry out security checks, it announced.
The group instructed bus and ferry operators to report their timetables, warning that it would not take responsibility for unreported boats and buses.
