The ethnic Arakan Army (AA) and allies are attacking a junta base that is crucial if the regime wants to defend its arms factories in Bago Region from rebel advances.
Fighting is raging in Bago’s Padaung Township on the Irrawaddy River as AA troops and allied forces try to capture the junta base in Nyaungyo.
They have seized most of the outposts surrounding the Nayungyo base despite heavy junta airstrikes, AA spokesman Khaing Thukha told The Irrawaddy.
Nyaunggyo lies en route from the AA’s home state of Rakhine to a cluster of ordnance factories—known by the Burmese acronym KaPaSa—in Bago.
Four of them are located around Okshitpin, an hour’s drive from Nyaunggyo, and appear to be a target of the current advance. Okshitpin also houses a training school for KaPaSa workers.
“If production is halted at those factories, it will seriously disrupt the production lines of all the other KaPaSa factories,” said former captain Zin Yaw, who has defected to the resistance.
The AA and allied forces have now seized most of Rakhine State and are advancing on Ayeyarwady, Magwe, and Bago regions.
The article appeared in the irrawaddy