#artillery bombardment | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

Photo

“Army’s Thundering Guns Blast Targets 17 Miles Away,” Kingston Whig-Standard. March 30, 1942. Page 10. ---- Skies are calm but there’s thunder on the ground at Fort Bragg, N.C., as these 155-mm rifles - the army’s biggest - send shells hurtling toward targets 17 miles away. Running gunner at left has just pulled lanyard to fire foreground gun while his crew crouches at right, some holding their ears. Gun crew in background races to reload their weapon.

#fort bragg #world war II #artillery bombardment #heavy artillery #artillerymen #united states army #military training

1 note · View note

onbearfeet · 1 year

Text

So my 11yo nephew (the one who wanted uranium for Christmas) found a copy of my first YA book lying around his parents' house and he read it and asked his mom if there was any more.

Reader, that book is over 10 years old and maybe 25 people read it before my life fell apart. And yes, it was a labor of love and a piece of my soul but you could not pay me to look at it again.

But my nephew. He wants a book.

Anyway I'll probably start dropping chapters of the reboot I was already working on in June 2023. If anyone wants to help me pick a title (the old one will not work due to covid permanently fucking over certain words), my DMs are open.

#kat's untitled superhero thing #kat's weird family #uranium nephew #he read the brothers Karamazov for fun last year #but i still warned him about the swearing in the new book #do not say these words to your mother child #neither of us will survive #and then you won't get book 2 #which has a full artillery bombardment in it #you're welcome

5 notes · View notes

northirish · 9 months

Text

Turn the other cheek? Wrong. Heavy artillery bombardment.

#shitpost

12K notes · View notes

90-ghost · 3 months

Text

They bombed Khan Yunis for the last 8 hours, with air, sea and artillery bombardment!

People don't know where to go, many refugees are stuck in the AlAqsa University tonight. This is unbearable, we are tired.

#gaza #Palestine #gaza strip #gaza genocide

5K notes · View notes

secondworldwarremembrancedays · 1 year

Text

Remember the Battle of Monte Cassino: January–May 1944.

After Anzio, the Germans occupied defensive positions known as the Winter Line, consisting of bunkers, barbed wire, minefields, and ditches. The four successive Allied assaults on these positions became known as the Battle of Monte Cassino.

The fight resembled a WWI battle, with artillery bombardments preceding bloody infantry assaults on fixed positions. Success was bought at the cost of more than 50,000 casualties on the Allied side. Today, the battle is mainly remembered for the destruction of the abbey of Monte Cassino (which was sheltering civilians) by more than 100 B-17 Flying Fortresses, when the Allies mistakenly believed the abbey to be a German artillery observation position.

[No Need to Imagine: Here’s How WWI Soldiers Actually Dressed]

#second world war #chronology #year 1944 #artillery bombardments #infantry assaults #abbey of Monte Cassino #the allies #german army #Battle of Monte Cassino #Winter line #bunkers #barbed wire #minefields

0 notes

workersolidarity · 2 months

Text

[ 📸 📹 Footage shows scenes of massive destruction everywhere to be seen after the withdrawal of Zionist forces in Hamad Town, a city in the Khan Yunis governate, in the southern Gaza Strip, while photos show the bodies of the dead resulting from IOF airstrikes targeting civilian homes in Deir al-Balah overnight, in the central Gaza Strip.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

HAMAD TOWN IN KHAN YUNIS COMPLETELY FLATTENED BY ZIONIST FORCES, DOZENS KILLED ON DAY 159 OF ISRAEL'S GENOCIDE

On the 159th day of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and on the second day of Ramadan, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 10 massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 88 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 135 others over the previous 24-hours.

In a highly illegal attack on the sovereign state of Lebanon, a Zionist raid targeting a civilian vehicle near the Al-Hosh Junction in the city of Tyre killed the Hamas political leader Hadi Mustafa, from the Rashidiya Camp, and wounded three other Lebanese civilians.

According to Lebanese media, Zionist artillery also fired on the Marjayoun Plain while Israeli military and reconnaissance aircraft operated in Lebanese airspace, with the local government calling on the International community to put a stop to Israeli strikes within its borders.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, Zionist artillery forces fired four shells towards the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital, affiliated with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, killing at least five civilians, including children, and wounding several others.

Similarly, Israeli warplanes targeted with airstrikes the civilian neighborhoods of Al-Daraj and Al-Zaytoun in Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of 15 Palestinians, including two women and at least seven children, while wounding dozens of others.

According to reports on the bombings, occupation warplanes bombarded a civilian home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood which killed seven civilians, including three children and wounded several others.

Later, a second strike targeting the Azzam family home in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, killed no less than eight civilians, including four children and two women, with a number of others wounded as well.

Israeli occupation aircraft also bombarded the Lulu family home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, killing two Palestinian civilians and wounding four children as a result.

IOF airstrikes and artillery fire also concentrated on the central Gaza Strip, with occupation forces targeting four civilian homes in the city of Deir al-Balah overnight.

In the first attack, Zionist air forces bombarded the Al-Atrash family home in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 11 civilians, most of whom were women and children, and wounding dozens of others.

Subsequently, IOF fighter jets bombed the Al-Qudra family home, resulting in the tragic deaths of 11 additional Palestinians, while a strike targeting the Abu Sanjar family home killed at least 7 civilians.

In another strike, occupation forces targeted the Al-Yazuri family home, also in Deir al-Balah, leading to 25 civilians killed or missing under the rubble of their home.

In another Zionist atrocity, the Palestinian fisherman's syndicate announced the horrific murder of two of its members, Muhammad and Youssef Adel al-Sayyid Abu Riyala, after being targeted by occupation gunboats while fishing off the coast of Al-Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, known locally as the Nuseirat Sea.

Moving towards the Southern Gaza Strip, IOF artillery shelling concentrated near Hamad Town, in the Khan Yunis governate, where violent clashes with Resistance forces led several Israeli aircraft to land in the area to transport wounded Zionist soldiers for medical care.

Local Paramedic personnel also transported the body of martyr Haitham Muhammad Deeb Suwaidan (35yo) from Khan Yunis to Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah.

Additionally, IOF soldiers detonated several residential homes east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

As a result of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the infinitely rising death toll stemming from Israeli attacks now exceeds 31'272 civilians killed, more than 25'000 of which being women and children according to the United States Pentagon, and wounding another 73'024 others since the current round of Israeli aggression began on October 7th, 2023.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#photosource

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

1K notes · View notes

decolonize-the-left · 3 months

Text

World Food Programme, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said that new entry routes need to be opened to Gaza or its population will suffer widespread famine and disease.

The European Union has added Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to its “terrorist” sanctions blacklist over the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed that it seized what it claims to be alleged Iranian missile components sent to the Houthis in Yemen last week.

The UK is continuing to export weapons to Israel, alleging Israel’s commitment to complying with international law despite legal action brought forward by two human rights organisations.

Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has sharply criticised the withdrawal of the military’s 36th Division from the Gaza Strip, describing the decision as ‘grave and dangerous mistake’.

#free Palestine #free gaza #Palestine #Gaza #Israel #January 16 2023 #i/p

2K notes · View notes

probablyasocialecologist · 4 months

Text

The vast majority (99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 equivalent) estimated to have been generated in the first 60 days following the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK and US. According to the study, which is based on only a handful of carbon-intensive activities and is therefore probably a significant underestimate, the climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal. The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, includes CO2 from aircraft missions, tanks and fuel from other vehicles, as well as emissions generated by making and exploding the bombs, artillery and rockets. It does not include other planet-warming gases such as methane. Almost half the total CO2 emissions were down to US cargo planes flying military supplies to Israel. Hamas rockets fired into Israel during the same period generated about 713 tonnes of CO2, which is equivalent to approximately 300 tonnes of coal – underscoring the asymmetry of each side’s war machinery.

[...]

David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur for human rights and the environment, said: “This research helps us understand the immense magnitude of military emissions – from preparing for war, carrying out war and rebuilding after war. Armed conflict pushes humanity even closer to the precipice of climate catastrophe, and is an idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget.”

[...]

Even without comprehensive data, one recent study found that militaries account for almost 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually – more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. This makes the global military carbon footprint – even without factoring in conflict-related emission spikes – the fourth largest after only the US, China and India.

#israel #palestine #gaza #climate change #war #emphasis added

1K notes · View notes

northgazaupdates · 3 months

Text

22 January 2024

Since the earliest hours of the morning, environmental engineer Dr. Tamer Al-Najjar has been reporting that Jabaliya is experiencing

-widespread and violent ground clashes between the IOF and resistance forces

-artillery shelling (tanks, ground missile launchers, etc) by the IOF

-intensified widespread aerial bombardment by the IOF

-increased presence of IOF warplanes flying overhead

These have been taking place for many days, but appear to have increased since about midnight last night, and continue to this very minute.

Check reblogs for updates

Source: Tamer Al-Najjar via Stories on Instagram

742 notes · View notes

if-you-fan-a-fire · 3 years

Photo

Scenes from the Battle of Yangxia, during the assault on Hankow, October 26, 1911, as Qing loyalist troops launch an attack on the beleaguered revolutionaries. 1) Soldiers at railway crossing on Race Course Road, Hankow. University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China, Stanely Wyatt-Smith collection, reference number WS01-080.

2) Unloading of Qing army guns from a train at the railway crossing on Race Course Road, Hankou. On reverse: G.[.].Strutt. / 2/1/12. University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China, Charles Wheeler collection, reference number: Wr-s073.

#hankow #汉口 #xinhai revolution #辛亥革命 #qing china #artillery bombardment #artillerymen #heavy artillery #qing empire #anti-qing politics #end of the qing #chinese revolution #beiyang army #北洋军 #阳夏之战 #wuchang #chinese history #black and white photography #war photography

1 note · View note

wearenotjustnumbers2 · 5 months

Text

Right now Aerial and artillery bombardment on Khanyounes in the South of gaza. As well as bombing in different areas of gaza. The south of gaza is the most populated right now since the people in the north evacuated there and weren't allowed back even during the truce.

Help and aids weren't allowed in the north either. Aids in the south aren't enough.

#palestine #gaza #israel #important #current events #free palestine #ethnic cleansing #free gaza #gaza strip #gaza under attack #israel apartheid #text post

293 notes · View notes

zvaigzdelasas · 2 months

Text

[TIME is Private US Media]

[By Anatol Lieven]

The long-awaited counteroffensive last year failed. Russia has recaptured Avdiivka, its biggest war gain in nine months. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to quietly acknowledge the new military reality. The Biden Administration’s strategy is now to sustain Ukrainian defense until after the U.S. presidential elections, in the hope of wearing down Russian forces in a long war of attrition.

This strategy seems sensible enough, but contains one crucially important implication and one potentially disastrous flaw, which are not yet being seriously addressed in public debates in the West or Ukraine. The implication of Ukraine standing indefinitely on the defensive—even if it does so successfully—is that the territories currently occupied by Russia are lost. Russia will never agree at the negotiating table to surrender land that it has managed to hold on the battlefield.

This does not mean that Ukraine should be asked to formally surrender these lands, for that would be impossible for any Ukrainian government. But it does mean that—as Zelensky proposed early in the war with regard to Crimea and the eastern Donbas—the territorial issue will have to be shelved for future talks.

As we know from Cyprus, which has been divided between the internationally recognized Greek Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus since 1974, such negotiations can continue for decades without a solution or renewed conflict. A situation in which Ukraine retains its independence, its freedom to develop as a Western democracy, and 82% of its legal territory (including all its core historic lands) would have been regarded by previous generations of Ukrainians as a real victory, though not a complete one.

As I found in Ukraine last year, many Ukrainians in private were prepared to accept the loss of some territories as the price of peace if Ukraine failed to win them back on the battlefield and if the alternative was years of bloody war with little prospect of success. The Biden Administration needs to get America on board too.[...]

Ukrainians have scored some notable successes against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, but to take back Crimea they would need to be able to launch a massive amphibious landing, an exceptionally difficult operation far beyond their capabilities in terms of ships and men. Attacks on Russian infrastructure are pinpricks given Russia’s size and resources.

More realistic is the suggestion that by standing on the defensive this year, Ukrainians can inflict such losses on the Russians that—if supplied with more Western weaponry—they can counterattack successfully in 2025. However, this depends on the Russians playing the game the way Kyiv and Washington want to play it.

The Russian strategy at present appears to be different. They have drawn Ukrainians into prolonged battles for small amounts of territory like Avdiivka, where they have relied on Russian superiority in artillery and munitions to wear them down through constant bombardment. They are firing three shells to every one Ukrainian; and thanks in part to help from Iran, Russia has now been able to deploy very large numbers of drones.

For Ukrainians to stand a chance, military history suggests that they would need a 3-to-2 advantage in manpower and considerably more firepower. Ukraine enjoyed these advantages in the first year of the war, but they now lie with Russia, and it is very difficult to see how Ukraine can recover them.[...]

A successful peace process would undoubtedly involve some painful concessions by Ukraine and the West. Yet the pain would be more emotional than practical, and a peace settlement would have to involve Putin giving up the plan with which he began the war, to turn the whole of Ukraine into a Russian vassal state, and recognizing the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its de facto present borders.

For the lost Ukrainian territories are lost, and NATO membership is pointless if the alliance is not prepared to send its own troops to fight for Ukraine against Russia. Above all, however painful a peace agreement would be today, it will be infinitely more so if the war continues and Ukraine is defeated.

24 Feb 24

171 notes · View notes

communistchilchuck · 17 days

Text

Donia @doniatanani reached out to me to help share her brother Said’s fundraiser. He is urgently trying to evacuate he and his brothers from Gaza to Egypt. Please donate and share, and if you can’t donate, please still share!

From Said’s GFM:

I'm Said Tanani from Gaza, I'm reaching out to you with a heavy heart and a plea for help getting me and my brothers out of Gaza, Me and my brothers, left our home under the continuous bombardment and artillery strikes, on foot, without carrying with us our personal supplies, our stuff, or even our money, heading from Gaza to Rafah. we lived the most difficult days of our lives in a shelter with scarce resources, sleeping on the ground. Without covers, without drinking a healthy water, without the importance life nessecary.

By now, many of you may be aware of the dire and heartbreaking situation unfolding in Gaza. It pains me deeply to share that me and my brothers are currently trapped in Gaza amidst relentless bombings, desperately seeking refuge and safety.

We are currently seeking help to evacuate from Gaza to Egypt looking for a safe and healthy place. But Unfortunately, the costs are exorbitant and change dramatically and unexpectedly by the day, as Israel's grip on the south of Gaza intensifies in the coming days and weeks, the costs will continue to rise as the demand increases and the number of agents operating the evacuation routes drops.

As of late March the evacuation fee ranges between $8,000 and $10,000 per person, before processing and transport fees, and we will pay the higher end of the range since me ,Abadi and Mohammed.

Any amount raised beyond the total will be used to supplement me & my brothers lives as refugees in Egypt.

Your donation, no matter how small, will make an impact. You will be contributing to getting my brothers to safety. The funds will be used transparently and every dollar will go towards securing our evacuation.

Please share this campaign widely to help us reach our goal and bring my brothers to safety. Your support means more than you can imagine and I am incredibly grateful for any assistance you can provide during this challenging time.

Thank you for your compassion and generosity.

Together, we can make change and help my brothers find the safety and security they need.

With heartfelt gratitude

Said Tanani.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza

141 notes · View notes

witchywitchy · 4 months

Text

Eng translation:

The Israeli occupation bombarded Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes using artillery. There are martyrs and wounded people as a result of the direct targeting of one of the patient rooms in the hospital using artillery. Allah suffices us, for he is the best disposer of affairs*.

*A prayer mostly used by Muslims in times of crisis/trouble.

End of translation

Keep speaking about Palestine!

115 notes · View notes

workersolidarity · 4 months

Text

[ 📹 Israeli occupation airstrikes targeted Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza, leaving several casualties among paramedics and civil defense teams. The Palestinian Red Crescent says occupation forces continue to target ambulance and civil defense crews in the latest of Israel's crimes.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚨 💥PARAMEDICS AND JOURNALISTS TARGETED ON 97TH DAY OF ISRAELI GENOCIDE💥

Israeli Occupation Forces ramped up their bombing and shelling of the Gaza Strip Thursday, killing dozens and targeting journalists and paramedics on the 97th day of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

In the south of the Gaza Strip, six Palestinian civilians were killed and many more wounded east of Khan Yunis, as a result of bombing raids by Israeli jets.

Also in the South of Gaza, occupation aircraft bombarded the home of the Bassam Abu Namous family on al-Samasma Street, west of Khan Yunis, killing seven civilians and wounding 25 others.

Occupation helicopters also fired sporadically into Khan Yunis, killing 19 over the previous day, due to Israeli bombardment.

IOF soldiers also continue to bomb and shell various residential homes in the Qaizan al-Najjar neighborhood in the south of Khan Yunis.

In Gaza City, IOF warplanes targeted the home of journalist Mohammed al-Thalathiini, killing the reporter and bringing the death toll among journalists in Israel's genocide to 112 since October 7th.

Israeli forces also targeted the al-Bureij, al-Maghazi, al-Nuseirat and the al-Mughraqa Camps area in central Gaza with heavy artillery fire and bombing raids.

In addition to these crimes, a Palestinian youth was seriously wounded as a result of targeting by an Israeli missile fired from a drone on al-Bahr Street in Rafah, southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the north of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, the Abu Hatab family home was targeted by the Israeli occupation, killing six and wounding several others.

A multitude of wounded Palestinian civilians were also rushed to al-Shifa Medical Complex in the west of Gaza City, with three citizens killed from the Machi family, in the vicinity of the now defunct and destroyed Gaza International Airport that once existed in the enclave's capital.

In central Gaza, six Palestinians, including four from ambulance crews, were slaughtered when occupation jets targeted and bombed an ambulance on Salah al-Din Street, adjacent to the al-Maghazi Refugee Camp.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), the Israeli occupation "deliberately targets" its ambulance crews, even when coordinating with International partners, with the PRCS warning against the targeting of the few remaining medical centers in the area.

A Palestinian residential home was also targeted near the entrance to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the Deir al-Balah area, resulting in the deaths of 12 civilians including journalist Ahmed Badir.

While in central Gaza, in the al-Maghazi Refugee Camp area, at least 17 civilians were murdered in strikes by occupation munitions, while Israeli forces also heavily bombed and shelled the al-Bureij and Nuseirat Camp residential areas.

In addition, Wafaa al-Bass, a recently freed prisoner held by the occupation, was killed in her home in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Since the beginning of Israel's genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip began on October 7th, 2023, in excess of 23'357 Palestinians have been killed, with an additional 59'410 wounded in Israeli war crimes.

#source1

#source2

#videosource1

@WorkerSolidarityNews

2K notes · View notes

southeastasianists · 19 days

Text

Nearly seven years after the Myanmar military killed thousands of Muslim Rohingyas, in what the UN called "textbook ethnic cleansing", it wants their help.

From interviews with Rohingyas living in Rakhine State the BBC has learned of at least 100 of them being conscripted in recent weeks to fight for the embattled junta. All their names have been changed to protect them.

"I was frightened, but I had to go," says Mohammed, a 31-year-old Rohingya man with three young children. He lives near the capital of Rakhine, Sittwe, in the Baw Du Pha camp. At least 150,000 internally displaced Rohingyas have been forced to live in IDP camps for the past decade.

In the middle of February the camp leader came to him late at night, Mohammed said, and told him he would have to do military training. "These are army orders," he remembers him saying. "If you refuse they have threatened to harm your family."

The BBC has spoken to several Rohingyas who have confirmed that army officers have been going around the camps and ordering the younger men to report for military training.

The terrible irony for men like Mohammed is that Rohingyas in Myanmar are still denied citizenship, and subjected to a range of discriminatory restrictions - like a ban on travel outside their communities.

In 2012 tens of thousands of Rohingyas were driven out of mixed communities in Rakhine State, and forced to live in squalid camps. Five years later, in August 2017, 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, after the army launched a brutal clearance operation against them, killing and raping thousands and burning their villages. Some 600,000 of them still remain there.

Myanmar is now facing a genocide trial at the International Court of Justice in the Hague over its treatment of the Rohingyas.

That the same army is now forcibly recruiting them is a telling sign of its desperation, after losing huge swathes of territory in Rakhine recently to an ethnic insurgent group called the Arakan Army. Dozens of Rohingyas in Rakhine have been killed by military artillery and aerial bombardments.

The military has also suffered significant losses to opposition forces in other parts of the country - on Saturday it lost control of Myawaddy, a town on the eastern border with Thailand. Most of the country's overland trade passes through this vital route.

The junta has lost large numbers of soldiers as well. They have been killed, wounded, surrendered or defected to the opposition, and finding replacements is difficult. Few want to risk their lives propping up an unpopular regime.

And the Rohingyas fear that is the reason they are being targeted again - to be cannon fodder in a war the junta seems to be losing.

Mohammed said he was driven to the base of the 270th Light Infantry Battalion in Sittwe. Rohingyas have been prohibited from living in the town since they were driven out during the 2012 communal violence.

"We were taught how to load bullets and shoot," he said. "They also showed us how to disassemble and reassemble a gun."

In a video seen by the BBC another group of Rohingya conscripts can be seen being taught how to use BA 63 rifles, an older standard weapon used by the Myanmar armed forces.

Mohammed was trained for two weeks, then sent home. But after just two days he was called back, and put on a boat with 250 other soldiers and transported five hours up-river to Rathedaung, where a fierce battle with the Arakan Army was under way for control of three hilltop military bases.

"I had no idea why I was fighting. When they told me to shoot at a Rakhine village, I would shoot."

He fought there for 11 days. They were desperately short of food, after a shell fell on their supply hut. He saw several Rohingya conscripts killed by artillery and he was injured by shrapnel in both legs, and taken back to Sittwe for treatment.

On 20 March the Arakan Army released photos from the battle, after it had taken control of the three bases, showing several corpses, at least three of them identified as Rohingyas.

"While I was in the middle of the battle I was terrified the whole time. I kept thinking about my family," Mohammed said. "I never thought I would have to go to war like that. I just wanted to go home. When I got home from the hospital I hugged my mother and cried. It felt like being born again from my mother's womb."

Another conscript was Hussain, from Ohn Taw Gyi camp, which is also near Sittwe. His brother Mahmoud says he was taken away in February and completed his military training, but he went into hiding before they could send him to the front line.

The military denies using Rohingyas to fight its battles with the Arakan Army. General Zaw Min Tun, the junta spokesman, told the BBC that there was no plan to send them to the front line. "We want to ensure their safety, so we have asked them to help with their own defence," he said.

But in interviews with the BBC, seven Rohingyas in five different IDP camps near Sittwe all said the same thing: that they know of at least 100 Rohingyas who have been recruited this year and sent off to fight.

They said teams of soldiers and local government officials came to the camps in February to announce that the younger men would be conscripted, at first telling people they would get food, wages and citizenship if they joined up. These were powerful lures.

Food in the IDP camps has become scarce and expensive as the escalating conflict with the Arakan Army has cut off the international aid supplies. And the denial of citizenship is at the heart of the Rohingyas' long struggle for acceptance in Myanmar, and one reason they suffer systematic discrimination, described by human rights groups as similar to apartheid.

However, when the soldiers returned to take the conscripted men away, they retracted the offer of citizenship. When asked by the camp residents why they, as non-citizens, should be subjected to conscription, they were told that they had a duty to defend the place where they lived. They would be militiamen, not soldiers, they were told. When they asked about the offer of citizenship, the answer was "you misunderstood".

Now, according to one camp committee member, the army is demanding new lists of potential recruits. After seeing and hearing from the first group to come back from the front line, he said, no-one else was willing to risk being conscripted.

So the camp leaders are now trying to persuade the poorest men, and those with no jobs, to go, by offering to support their families while they are away, with donations raised from other camp residents.

"This conscription campaign is unlawful and more akin to forced labour," said Matthew Smith, from the human rights group Fortify Rights.

"There's a brutal and perverse utility to what's happening. The military is conscripting the victims of the Rohingya genocide in an attempt to fend off a nationwide democratic revolution. This regime has no regard for human life. It's now layering these abuses on top of its long history of atrocities and impunity."

By using Rohingyas in its battles against the advancing Arakan Army, the Myanmar military threatens to reignite communal conflict with the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist population, much of which supports the insurgents.

It was friction between the two communities which in 2012 caused the expulsion of tens of thousands of Rohingyas from towns like Sittwe. In 2017, ethnic Rakhine men joined in the army's attacks on the Rohingyas.

Tension between the two communities has eased since then.

The Arakan Army is fighting for an autonomous state, part of a wider campaign with other ethnic armies and opposition groups to overthrow the military junta and create a new, federal system in Myanmar.

Now on the brink of victory in Rakhine State, the Arakan Army has talked about giving citizenship to all who have lived there recently, implying that it might accept the return of the Rohingya population from Bangladesh.

The mood has now changed. A spokesman for the Arakan Army, Khaing Thukha, told the BBC that they viewed Rohingyas being conscripted to fight for the junta as "the worst betrayal of those who had recently been victims of genocide, and of those fighting for liberation from dictatorship".

Pro-military media have also been giving publicity to what appear to have been Rohingya protests in Buthidaung against the Arakan Army, although local people told the BBC they suspected these were organised by the army in an attempt to divide the two groups.

The Rohingyas are now forced to fight for an army that does not recognise their right to live in Myanmar, thereby alienating the ethnic insurgents who may soon control most of Rakhine. Once targeted by both, they are now caught between the two sides.

Mohammed has been given a certificate by the army, stating that he has fought in battle on their side. He has no idea what value it has, nor whether it exempts him from further military service. It could well get him into trouble with the Arakan Army if it continues its advance towards Sittwe and his camp.

He is still recovering from his injuries, and says he is unable to sleep at night after his experience.

"I'm afraid they will call me again. This time I came back because I was lucky, but next time I am not sure what will happen."

#Southeast Asia #Burma #Myanmar #Military Junta #Rohingya People

80 notes · View notes