The Arakan Army (AA), along with its allied resistance forces, have advanced along the Taungup-Pandaung Road past the regime outpost at Nyaungkyo village near Okeshitpin town in Pandaung Township without fully seizing it, sources on the frontline in Bago Region told DVB on Thursday.
“[The AA] offensive is heading towards Nyaung Chay Htauk village,” a Pandaung resident told DVB.
Pandaung is located 188 miles (302 km) north of the region’s capital Bago and 89 miles (143 km) east of Taungup, Arakan State. The AA has been engaged in battle with regime forces over control of the Nyaungkyo outpost since late February.
The Nyaungkyo outpost is located 11 miles (18 km) from the Directorate of Defence Industries (DDI) 6, known in Burmese as KaPaSa, located in Nyaung Chay Htauk village of Pandaung Township. DDI 6 refines raw materials for manufacturing arms and ammunition for the military.
“The regime transported the wounded [from Nyaungkyo] to Okeshitpin. It can no longer send reinforcements to Nyaungkyo and only supports [its outpost] with artillery and airstrikes,” a source on the frontline in Bago told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
The regime sent nearly 120 troops from Hmawbi Township of Yangon Region to reinforce the Nyaungkyo outpost in early March, the source added. Hmawbi is located 159 miles (255 km) south of Pandaung.
Zin Yaw, a Burma Army defector who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) after the 2021 military coup, told DVB that if the AA takes control of the Nyaungkyo outpost, this would pose a “significant threat” to DDI 6, as well as to Pyay Township, in Bago.
The AA seized control of the Taungpongyi outpost located along the Taungup-Pandaung Road leading from Arakan into Bago in January. It also seized the Pakankwalkya, Natsinkone and Tawadaing outposts in Pandaung Township last month.
The AA expanded its Arakan offensive into neighbouring Bago, Ayeyarwady and Magway regions in December. It controls 14 out of Arakan’s 17 townships, but the state capital Sittwe, the deep sea port town of Kyaukphyu and the island of Manaung remain under regime control.
Khaing Thukha, the AA spokesperson, did not respond to a DVB request for comment on the Nyaungkyo battle.
