Myanmar airport closed following reported drone attack

Military authorities pins onslaught connected pro-democracy rebels it has been battling since seizing powerfulness successful 2021.

Flight operations ‌at Myanmar’s second-busiest airdrome person been halted, arsenic the country’s military-backed authorities accused rebel groups of attempted drone attacks.

Myanmar Airways International said connected its Facebook leafage precocious connected Thursday that each planetary flights from Mandalay’s Tada-U International Airport connected September 11 and 12 had been cancelled.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Rohingya refugees request justice, dignity astatine Cox’s Bazar protest
• list 2 of 4Human rights concern successful Myanmar ‘plummets to caller low’, UN says
• list 3 of 4Air raids, conscripts and China: How Myanmar’s subject is regaining ground
• list 4 of 4Cluster munitions kill, coiled implicit 1,000 globally successful 2025

Domestic flights were being transferred to a adjacent airdrome until further announcement for “operational reasons”, the connection added.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar outlet reported that information forces had thwarted an onslaught connected the airdrome by the People’s Defence Force. It said the pro-democracy rebel radical had fired six “suicide drones” astatine ⁠the facility.

“The onslaught temporarily disrupted immoderate ⁠domestic flights. However, nary casualties oregon harm to vehicles oregon airdrome runways were reported,” the paper said.

Local media reported that absorption forces were targeting subject pitchy fighters ⁠at the airport, though the concern could not beryllium independently verified by Al Jazeera oregon quality agencies.

Myanmar has been gripped by ⁠conflict since the ousting of an elected ⁠government led by Aung San Suu Kyi successful a February 2021 coup, prompting a nationwide absorption question that has evolved into a civilian warfare betwixt the ‌military and an array of equipped taste and pro-democracy groups.

Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s erstwhile subject authorities chief, was elected president ‌by ‌a military-backed parliament successful April, formalising his grip connected powerfulness aft 5 years of service rule.

This quality rights concern successful Myanmar has plummeted “to a caller low,” according to the United Nations, citing “brutal abuse” of the Rohingya minority and the devastating interaction of illicit economical activity, including amerciable mining for uncommon earths.

Rebel groups and Myanmar’s subject are present some utilizing drones successful the protracted civilian war, which has killed much than 100,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project.