The border guard police battalion is the last regime unit standing in Maungdaw Town. The AA has been fighting the battalion for months and the Myanmar military has been conducting frequent air raids since Sunday, with the AA responding with artillery attacks, said the source.

With an ongoing AA offensive now reaching to within less than 15 miles of Gwa Town, the military regime is reportedly carrying out raids in Ayeyarwady Region's Ngathainggyaung, Yekyi, Kyonepyaw, Chaungtha and Ngwesaung, and has increased troop deployments in the border area.

"The actions of the combined terrorist group, MNDAA [Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army], TNLA [Ta'ang National Liberation Army], and AA [Arakkha Army], which started in October 2023, have worsened the socio-economic conditions of the people," Min Aung Hlaing said in his remarks.

Due to the regime's aerial bombardment, civilian casualties are increasing in Taungup Township, where fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakkha Army (AA) has not been intense thus far except for a few battles.

"The international community must make sure the regime can't import aviation fuel and weapons. Otherwise, it will prolong the civil war in Myanmar, and more lives and property will be lost."

Regime airstrikes have increasingly targeted civilian towns and villages, causing the deaths and bodily harm of children as well as psychological trauma and physical destruction.

It has been about one week since the military first clashed with the AA on the hills near Kutohlay Village, about 18 miles from Gwa Town.

One Arakanese migrant in Yangon said: "We have lost contact with all the towns in Arakan State. Phone and internet services have been completely cut off since yesterday."

Textbooks and stationery are in short supply and prices are skyrocketing due to the junta blockades, which affected Arakan State since fighting between the Myanmar regime and Arakkha Army (AA) flared anew in November 2023.

A local farmer was struck dead by a lightning strike in Chaunggyiyat Village, part of Arakan State's Myebon Township, on Friday evening.

The thousands of residents from Ywathayar, Mee Laung Chaung, Kyauksakwe, Meltaung Chayyin, Kyat, Yattha, Kyaungphyukwin, Kywetalin, Gangawtaung and Sangyi villages have fled to safer locations since early September.

The regime used two cluster bombs in a clash with the AA near the military's Light Infantry Battalion No. 373 in Ann on October 10, according to sources close to the military.

Junta soldiers and village heads in Arakan State's Sittwe Township have increased the amount of monthly charges, purportedly to fund Muslim conscripts, that they collect from Muslim villages and displacement camps.

"The fighting is still fierce," said one Ann resident on Saturday morning. "I heard the AA is gaining the upper hand. The regime has called in air and artillery support."

Hostilities between the Arakkha Army (AA) and military are escalating as the former steps up attacks on the latter's Border Guard Force (BGF) No. 5, the last standing junta battalion in besieged Maungdaw.

A bomb dropped by a junta jet fighter landed and exploded in the compound of the village school, wounding U Oo Kyaw Hsan, a man in his 50s, on October 11.

Muslim armed groups such as ARSA, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) have been accused of killing local civilians in northern Arakan State.

"Conflict persists in the Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Rakhine [Arakan] State, resulting in new displacement, civilian casualties and rising protection concerns," said the UN humanitarian agency's October 10 report.

A junta jet fighter dropped bombs on Kyauktaw at around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, hitting the No. 2 basic education middle school and two powder mills, and causing the mass civilian casualties.