Early Sunday morning (August 10), Myanmar’s Air Force launched airstrikes targeting Arakan Army (AA) positions in the northern Rakhine State areas of Mungdaw and Buthidaung. The attacks reportedly killed around 30 AA fighters, including a senior officer, according to Arakan News Agency.

At least 70 others were injured, with some in critical condition. The airstrikes also claimed the lives of five civilians, including one woman.

Local sources reported that at approximately 4:08 a.m., a Myanmar Air Force plane dropped a bomb on an AA camp near Farawkshang village in Mungdaw. This was followed by two additional bombs dropped by a second aircraft, each weighing about 500 pounds. Witnesses described the explosions as extremely loud.

An AA insider confirmed that the bombs accurately hit their targets and that a third bomb landed nearby. Another AA battalion stationed in the village of Sewing Nyin Bin in Buthidaung was also targeted, though casualty details there remain unknown.

Since November 2023, the Arakan Army has conducted military operations against Myanmar’s military, gaining control of 14 out of 17 townships in the state. Amid this ongoing conflict, the Rohingya community continues to suffer severe persecution, forced displacement, and human rights abuses. The 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingya led to nearly one million fleeing to Bangladesh, widely described as a genocide.

Myanmar has been unstable since the military coup in February 2021, which ousted the elected government. Following the takeover, the military violently suppressed peaceful protests and armed resistance movements have since seized key territories in several states across the country.

BOB Post