Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said three other civilians also seized during the attack on the police outpost in Tha Zin Mying Village in Rathedaung township on May 29, have been released.
He said some 100 heavily armed AA fighters attacked the outpost before dawn, and the fighting lasted for about three hours before the outnumbered police forces withdrew from the station.
“About 100 AA fighters who used heavy and small arms have attacked the outpost that has a few police officers,” he said, adding that the fighting erupted at about 2 am and the police officers abandoned the outpost at 5 am.
“The AA is committing a violent war crime by attacking a police outpost that provides security for local ethnic villages,” Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said.
But Khaing Thu Kha, a spokesperson of AA, said the attack was in retaliation t the raid conducted by government troops on the ethnic armed group’s encampment in Paletwa township in Chin State on May 24 that left many AA fighters dead.
“Our dream is to force the Myanmar Army to withdraw totally from Rakhine State,” he said.
The attack is likely to escalate the conflict that has been raging in the area since November 2018, when AA attempted to establish a base in Mrauk-U town.
On January 4 last year, AA fighters attacked four police outposts in Buthidaung township. Two months later, the AA attacked another police outpost in Ponnagyun township, followed by the attack on Mrauk-U township on April 10. After a lull of three months, the ethnic armed group attacked he Nyaung Chaung outpost back in Buthidaung village. A total of 25 policemen were killed and 16 others injured in these attacks.
The Arakan Army, which was established in 2009, is fighting for autonomy from the central government. It was declared a terrorist group on 23 March.mmtimes
 attack on an outpost of a police border guard force in the strife-torn Rakhine State){kind=link}
