At least 100 regime troops were killed fighting the Arakan Army (AA) in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township since a regime counteroffensive began on Sept. 4. Ponnagyun, located 20 miles (32 km) north of the Arakan State capital Sittwe, was seized by the AA in 2024.
“The AA recovered over 100 bodies of regime troops, including two battalion commanders,” a source in the AA told DVB on the condition of anonymity, adding that the military deployed around 1,000 ground troops to Ponnagyun, which were supported by artillery and airstrikes carried out by the Myanmar Air Force. Neither the AA nor the regime in Naypyidaw reported any official casualties.
The source added that fighting between the AA and regime forces was still taking place along the area between Sittwe and Ponnagyun towns on Sept. 12, with artillery support coming from the military’s Regional Command Headquarters and Shwe Mingan naval base, both located in Sittwe.
The regime counteroffensive has been reported as occurring simultaneously in Arakan’s Sittwe, Kyaukphyu and Thandwe townships since Sept. 4, in what pro-regime social media accounts have unanimously dubbed “Operation 4926.”
At least one woman was killed and three other civilians were injured during two airstrikes carried out by the Air Force in Thandwe’s Ward 8 on Sept. 7, the AA reported. Thandwe, located 160 miles (260 km) south of Sittwe, was seized by the AA in 2024.
Over 5,000 residents across 10 villages of Kyaukphyu, 317 miles (510 km) south of Sittwe, have been displaced due to the regime counteroffensive against the AA in Kyaukphyu’s Zinchaung and Sa Ne villages since Sept. 4.
A resident of Sa Ne village told DVB on the condition of anonymity that regime forces have launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or drone, attacks along with the airstrikes “frequently.”
Residents of Sittwe told DVB that an unknown number of civilians across three villages have also been displaced due to Myanmar Navy attacks since the counteroffensive began.
The AA has seized 14 out of Arakan’s 17 townships, as well as neighboring Chin State’s Paletwa Township, since it launched a statewide offensive on Nov. 13, 2023.
It expanded its offensive into neighbouring Ayeyarwady, Bago and Magway regions in 2025. Besides Sittwe and Kyaukphyu, Manaung is the only other township under regime control in the state.
