Civil war in Myanmar: air strike on a market kills around 50 people

In western Myanmar, around 50 people were killed in a military airstrike on a market in the city of Kyauktaw. According to the guerrilla group Arakan Army (AA), which controls the area in northwestern Rakhine state, 49 civilians died. Rescue workers spoke of 50 dead. Both sources named 58 injured, many of them seriously injured. There was initially no statement from the military, and the information cannot be independently verified.

Myanmar's air force attacked the "Indian Market" on the bridge over the Kaladan River on Monday afternoon, reports the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) portal, which is in opposition to the military government. The bridge connects Kyauktaw to other AA-controlled towns.

The AA controls 14 of Rakhine's 17 cities, as well as the 271-kilometer-long border with Bangladesh. The military only controls Rakhine's capital Sittwe and its surroundings, the port city of Kyaukpyu and its suburbs, and the island of Manaung. The military can only reach these areas by air or sea.

At Sittwe, the military, which had previously been reinforced by 1,000 soldiers, has been trying to push back the AA with an offensive since the beginning of September. According to DVB, four locations near Sittwe had already been bombed from the air before the attack on Kyautaw. At least two civilians were killed. There are currently no independent reports about the course of the military offensive. For years, the military has been attacking, primarily from the air, in order to minimize its own losses and is repeatedly hitting civilians. The rebels have self-built drones, but neither an air force nor air defense.

The AA, which is estimated to have up to 45,000 fighters, is currently the strongest guerrilla force in Myanmar. It has its own compulsory military service in the areas it controls and knows how to maneuver between the major powers China and India. The AA is committed to protecting China's strategic investments as part of the New Silk Road, but other rebel groups that operate geographically closer to China will have to bow much more to pressure from Beijing.

Myanmar's military staged a coup on February 1, 2021 and drove the unexpectedly large civil resistance underground with brutal repression. There he joined forces with the guerrilla armies of ethnic minorities, most of whom have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

The AA was founded in 2009 and is one of the youngest ethnic armies in the country. It represents a local nationalism that goes back to earlier independent and first Hindu, later Buddhist kingdoms in Arakan. Arakan was called Rakhine before the military renamed it in 1989.

Many AA fighters were trained by the ethnic Kachin Independance Army (KIA) in northern Myanmar. And since the coup, the AA has been training so-called People's Defense Forces (PDF), which were created in the fight against the dictatorship.

In 2023, the AA joined with two other ethnic armies to form the “Three Brothers Alliance,” which temporarily put the military on the defensive. The AA in particular captured a lot of weapons and was able to gain major terrain in Rakhine in 2024. In neighboring Chin State, the AA even formed a buffer zone.

Since the coup, the war in Myanmar has claimed around 100,000 lives. Large parts of the population are dependent on humanitarian aid. 3.6 million people are on the run within the country. The junta has given itself a democratic appearance with sham elections; coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing is now officially president. His strategy worked to the extent that he was now courted by several countries, including India and China.

The dictator is expected to visit Malaysia soon, which wants to get rid of Rohingya refugees. They came there from Myanmar and from the refugee camps in Bangladesh. While they have already been driven out of Myanmar by the military several times, they are now being forcibly recruited there in the war against the AA. Since then they have been caught between the two fronts.