Myanmar military battles to push rebels back from Chinese economic zone

Myanmar’s military bombed a village in an economic zone that is vital to China’s investment in Myanmar, sparking a fire that burned almost 200 homes, residents told Radio Free Asia, as insurgents tightened their grip on the junta’s last pockets of territory in Rakhine state.

The Arakan Army, or AA, is one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority insurgent groups and has nearly achieved its goal of defeating the forces of the junta that seized power in 2021 across the whole of Rakhine state.