Myanmar army faces a new threat from armed ethnic foes

Bangkok: Myanmar’s military government, under pressure in the country’s northeast where it recently lost strategic territory to an alliance of armed ethnic groups, faced a fresh challenge Monday when one of the groups launched attacks in the western state of Rakhine.

The Arakan Army launched surprise assaults on two outposts of the Border Guard Police, a para-military force, in Rakhine’s Rathedaung township, according to independent online media and residents of the area. The attacks took place despite a yearlong cease-fire with Myanmar’s military government. The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement seeking autonomy from the central government.

Rakhine is also known by its older name of Arakan. It’s the site of a brutal army counterinsurgency operation in 2017 that drove about 740,000 minority Rohingya Muslims to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh.

Fighting was also reported between the rebels and the

military in Minbya, Maungdaw, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw

townships.