Price of victory against the junta

Securing the scene: Rebel soldiers patrolling on a vehicle next to an area destroyed by airstrikes launched by Myanmar’s military. — Reuters

GUTTED buildings, vacant windows and blocks bombed to rubble show the price paid by the western Myanmar town of Pauktaw for victory against the junta in the country’s civil war.

Fighters from the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic minority armed group took control of the fishing port of 20,000 people in January, as the conflict sparked by the military’s coup entered its fourth year.