Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
At dawn on Sunday, the Myanmar military’s air force launched an airstrike using two fighter jets on positions belonging to the Arakan Army (AA) in northern Maungdaw and Buthidaung in Arakan State, killing around 30 fighters, including a senior officer, and injuring about 70 others, some critically. Five civilians, including a woman, were also killed.
Eyewitnesses told Arakan News Agency that the strikes targeted an AA site near Farawakshong village in Maungdaw at around 4:08 a.m., when the first jet dropped one bomb followed by another jet dropping two bombs, each estimated to weigh around 500 pounds. They confirmed that the explosions were powerful enough to wake residents from their sleep.
A source close to the AA said the bombs directly hit the intended site, while a third bomb fell in its vicinity. Another AA battalion near Seing Nyong Bin village in Buthidaung was also targeted, but casualties there remain unknown.
The Arakan Army currently controls most of the state after launching a military campaign in November 2023 against the Myanmar military, during which it seized control of 14 out of 17 towns. The conflict has also engulfed the Rohingya, who have suffered violence, forced displacement, and persecution from both sides, after already enduring what has been described as a “genocide” by the Myanmar military in 2017 that drove nearly one million to flee to Bangladesh.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup in February 2021, when the army overthrew the elected government and violently suppressed peaceful protests, sparking a wave of armed resistance across the country. Resistance groups have since seized control of significant areas in multiple states.
