[Tee tiong huat]

Rakhine Rebels Attack Myanmar Junta Checkpoint on Bago Border- The Irrawaddy says
the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) on Wednesday attacked a junta base on the border of Rakhine State & Bago Region that is crucial for the defense of an arms production hub.

The heavily fortified checkpoint in Taung Pone Gyi village sits in the Arakan Mountains adjacent to Pandaung Township in western Bago. Junta warplanes strafed Taung Pone Gyi and surrounding villages during the attack, leaving multiple casualties and forcing residents to flee to the nearby town of Okshitpin, local who fled the fighting, it Taungup-Pandaung road in the Arakan Mountains, heard several people were killed and injured,” he told The Irrawaddy.

Taung Pone Gyi checkpoint sits high up in the Arakan Mountains, about halfway on the road weaving from Rakhine State’s Taungup to Bago’s is key to defending a cluster of arms factories on the other flank. If it were to fall, AA would have a clear path to Okshitpin on the junction with Pathein-Monywa road & Pandaung beyond. Five of Bago’s 7 ordnance factories (known as KaPaSa in Burmese) are spread across Pandaung, is also home to state-owned heavy industries that date back to time of Burma Socialist Programme Party.

The attack on Taung Pone Gyi came after the AA captured Taungup, which housed 5th Military Op Command of Myanmar military. The AA has now seized 14 of Rakhine’s 17 townships, & retreating regime has bolstered defenses on border of Magwe, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions for fear that armed conflict could spill over.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/war-again...order.html