By Hafizur Rahman, August 11, 2025
Early Sunday morning, August 10, two Myanmar military fighter jets carried out deadly airstrikes on Arakan Army (AA) positions in northern Maungdaw and Buthidaung, Arakan State, killing about 30 AA fighters, including a senior commander, and injuring around 70 others. Among the dead were five civilians, one of them a woman, as the blasts tore through nearby homes.
The strikes targeted an AA site near Farawakshong village in Maungdaw at around 4:08 a.m., when the first jet dropped one bomb followed by another jet dropping two bombs, each estimated to weigh around 500 pounds. “The situation is very dire, my whole house was thrown off the bed due to loud sounds. I thought it was the end of my life,” said Abdul Hakim, a Rohingya resident, speaking to Rohingya Khobor.
According to residents, the blasts were powerful enough to wake people across the surrounding area. “We heard screaming everywhere, and people were running with children in their arms. The air was filled with smoke and dust,” said a Rohingya father.
A source close to the AA said the bombs directly hit the intended location, while a third bomb fell nearby. Another AA battalion near Seing Nyong Bin village in Buthidaung was also targeted, but casualties there remain unknown. “We are living in fear every day because both sides are fighting and we are caught in between. We have nowhere safe to go,” said Noor Mohammed, a displaced Rohingya man now sheltering in Buthidaung.
The Arakan Army currently controls most of the state after launching a military campaign in November 2023 against the Myanmar military, during which it seized control of 14 out of 17 towns. The conflict has also engulfed the Rohingya, who have suffered violence, forced displacement, and persecution from both sides, after already enduring what has been described as a “genocide” by the Myanmar military in 2017 that drove nearly one million to flee to Bangladesh.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup in February 2021, when the army overthrew the elected government and violently suppressed peaceful protests, sparking a wave of armed resistance across the country. Resistance groups have since seized control of significant areas in multiple states.
