Karenni
\nMyanmar\u2019s military has launched attacks from the air and the sea to recapture a port town on the Bay of Bengal, an opposition alliance said on Friday, as junta forces face the fiercest offensive from their enemies in years. The military, which seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup, is battling a coordinated offensive launched last month by an alliance of three ethnic minority insurgent groups, as well as allied pro-democracy fighters who have taken up arms since the coup.
\n\u201cThe military attacked Pauktaw town with helicopters and artillery fire from a navy ship after we conquered the police station of the town in the morning,\u201d the Three Brotherhood Alliance said on its Telegram channel, referring to the fighting in western Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine State on Thursday. \u201cIn the evening, junta troops came into the town and shot and killed civilians,\u201d the alliance said.
\nReuters could not independently verify the report and a junta spokesperson did not respond to request for comment.
\nPauktaw is about 500 km (310 miles ) northwest of Myanmar\u2019s main city of Yangon. The offensive, which the insurgent alliance calls \u201cOperation 1027\u201d after the date it was launched, is the biggest the junta has faced in years.
\nThree rebel groups, aligned with pro-democracy fighters and a parallel, pro-democracy civilian government, have captured several towns and military posts across the country.
\nThe Irrawaddy news portal, citing a resident of Pauktaw, said members of the Arakan Army (AA) guerrilla group had earlier taken control of the town.
\n\u201cAll the residents are running away. There is no one in the city, all the shops are closed,\u201d the resident said.
\nFighting has also broken out in Shan State on the border with China where the insurgents have pledged to wrest control of the area from the junta and eradicate online scam centres run illegally there.
\nIn the weeks before the clashes, Chinese officials called on the junta to take stronger action against the scam centres where Chinese and other foreign nationals have been known to be trapped as victims of human trafficking.
\nHundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to work in scam centres across Southeast Asia in recent years, including at least 120,000 in Myanmar, robbing strangers of their savings online in a fast-growing new kind of crime, the United Nations says.
\nJunta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun accused the rebel alliance of trying to get China\u2019s support for their cause.
\n\u201cChina is really keen to eliminate online scam activities, and (the alliance) is using that situation with a strategy to gain benefits for their organisation,\u201d he said in a statement on Thursday.
\nJunta state media said on Friday it had handed three Chinese nationals accused of running scams over to China, while a fourth suspect shot himself after being captured.
\nThe Chinese government could not immediately be reached for comment.
\nDozens of junta troops have surrendered in the fighting, according to rebel forces and a video verified by Reuters, and more have fled into neighbouring India.
\nThe junta says it is battling terrorists and has ordered all government staff and those with military experience to prepare to serve in case of emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karenni Myanmar\u2019s military has launched attacks from the air and the sea to recapture a port town on the Bay of Bengal, an opposition alliance said on Friday, as junta forces face the fiercest offensive from their enemies in years. The military, which seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup, is battling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-368684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n