The end, when it came for the BGP5 barracks, was loud and brutal. First, a crackly speaker called out for their surrender; then, a thunderous barrage of artillery, rockets, and rifle fire tore chunks out of the buildings where hundreds of soldiers were hiding. This violent clash marked the culmination of a bloody siege that ends military control of Myanmar’s western border, leaving a significant mark on the ongoing civil war.
BGP5 – the letters stand for Border Guard Police – represented the Myanmar military junta’s last stronghold in northern Rakhine State, which lies along the border with Bangladesh. Video footage from the insurgent Arakan Army (AA), which led the siege, captures their fighters—many barefoot—using an assortment of weapons to assault the base while air force jets roared overhead. This bloody siege ends military control of Myanmar’s western border and symbolizes one of the most intense battles in the nation’s recent history.
The confrontation was ferocious, described by some as perhaps the bloodiest of the civil war that has engulfed Myanmar since the military coup in 2021. “They had dug deep ditches filled with spikes around the base,” “There were bunkers and reinforced buildings. They laid more than a thousand mines. Many of our fighters lost limbs, or their lives, trying to get through.” This relentless fighting underscores how the bloody siege ends military control of Myanmar’s western border, dealing a devastating blow to the junta’s authority.
For General Min Aung Hlaing, the coup leader, this marks another humiliating defeat following a series of military setbacks over the past year. For the first time, his regime has lost control of an entire border: the 270km (170 miles) dividing Myanmar from Bangladesh is now entirely under AA control. With the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe, still in military hands but isolated from the rest of the country, the AA appears poised to become the first insurgent group to take full control of a state.
CNN, GUARDIANS, BBC NEWS
