The Arakan Army is a member of the armed ethnic group alliance that recently gained strategic territory in the country’s northeast.
That offensive has posed the greatest battlefield challenge to Myanmar’s military rulers since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
Rakhine is where a brutal army counterinsurgency operation in 2017 drove about 740,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh.
Myanmar’s independent national and Rakhine media outlets reported Monday about the capture of Paletwa, citing the Arakan Army.
A resident interviewed by phone said that Arakan Army had taken control of Paletwa town after intense fighting between the group and military that broke out last week.
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