The Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group in Myanmar, has claimed to have captured hundreds of soldiers, including notorious Brigadier General Thurein Tun, in the border city of Maungdaw near Bangladesh. This was reported by Myanmar’s media outlet, The Irrawaddy, on Wednesday (December 11).
The AA announced on Wednesday that it had taken control of the last junta stronghold in Maungdaw, a city in Myanmar’s Rakhine State near the Bangladesh border. The capture reportedly occurred on Sunday following a prolonged battle. Among those captured were Myanmar military personnel and armed Rohingya militants.
The seizure of Maungdaw effectively gives the Arakan Army control over nearly 270 kilometers of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. The rebel group claimed to have seized Border Guard Police Battalion No. 5, located outside Maungdaw city, after months of fighting.
This heavily fortified base was reportedly operated by over 700 police officers and soldiers, alongside Rohingya militias such as the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA), Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), and Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO). The AA stated that after 55 days of intense fighting, they managed to overrun the base, even amidst junta airstrikes. During the final battle, the AA claims over 450 junta troops were killed, and a significant cache of weapons and ammunition was seized.
Following the capture of the base, many junta soldiers fled. However, the AA detained nearly 80 armed Rohingya militants along with government soldiers, including Brigadier General Thurein Tun, the commander of the Military Operation Command (MOC) 15.
Shortly before the fall of the base, trapped junta soldiers had posted a video on social media pleading with their leaders to evacuate them. In the video, the soldiers alleged they had been stranded at the base for three months with no rescue plan in sight and accused Brigadier General Thurein Tun of abandoning them.
The Irrawaddy reported that Brigadier General Thurein Tun is infamous for leading a brutal crackdown on peaceful anti-coup protests in Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, following the 2021 military coup. He has also been accused of training and arming Rohingya fighters in northern Rakhine State to fight on behalf of the junta.