A powerful armed ethnic group in Myanmar has claimed control over a town in the western state of Rakhine after weeks of fighting, denying accusations it had targeted members of the Muslim-minority Rohingya during the offensive.
Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the Arakan Army (AA), said its soldiers had taken Buthidaung near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh, marking another defeat for the ruling junta that is fighting opposition groups on multiple fronts.
"We have conquered all the bases in Buthidaung and also took over the town yesterday," Khine Thu Kha told news agencies.
Buthidaung sits around 90 kilometres north of state capital Sittwe, which is still held by the military.
There are contradictory accounts of who is to blame for the reported burning of the town, compelling its Rohingya residents to flee.
The competing claims could not be verified independently.
Communication with Rakhine is extremely difficult, with most mobile networks and access to the internet cut off.
Some Rohingya activists accuse the AA of targeting the community during the assault, forcing many of them to flee for safety.
"AA troops came into downtown, forced the people to leave their homes and started torching houses," Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition advocacy group, told Reuters, based on what he said were eyewitness accounts.
"While the town was burning, I spoke with several people I have known and trusted for years.
"They all testified that the arson attack was done by the AA."
A junta spokesman did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Rohingya have faced persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for decades.
After escaping a military-led crackdown in 2017, nearly a million of them live crammed into refugee camps in Bangladesh's border district of Cox's Bazar.
Junta's biggest challenge
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 military coup that led to the rise of resistance fighting alongside long-established ethnic minority rebel groups.
The conflict has escalated since October, when an alliance of ethnic armies including the AA launched a major offensive near the Chinese border, taking swathes of territory from the better-armed junta and presenting its biggest challenge since taking power.
The junta has lost control of around half its 5,280 military positions, including outposts, bases and headquarters, according to one estimate.
The AA's Khine Thu Kha said junta aircraft and Muslim insurgent groups aligned with the military had set fire to parts of Buthidaung.
Buthidaung had a population of around 55,000 people, according to the most recent government census available, from 2014.
"The burning of Buthidaung is due to the air strikes from the junta's jet fighter before our troops entered the town," he said.
Aung Kyaw Moe, a Rohingya activist and a deputy minister in Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government, on Saturday said Rohingya residents had been asked by the AA to leave Buthidaung.
The Rohingya community responded that they had nowhere to go, leaving them trapped when the offensive occurred.
"Since about 10pm last night up to this early morning, Buthidaung town had been burning and now only ashes remain," he said.
Rohingya residents fled to the field and there may be casualties, he said.
Reuters/AP
