Myanmar junta authorities arrested two members of an urban guerrilla group planning to attack one of the military’s largest air bases, from where the air force launches attacks on civilians, the rebel group said.
The two fighters were preparing to fire rockets at the Hmawbi Air Base, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the main city of Yangon, on Sunday when they were captured, the group called Dark Shadow said.
“Troops stationed at the Hmawbi Air Base have been carrying out aerial bombardments on homes and camps for internally displaced people,” the group said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Dark Shadow said other members of the team preparing to attack the air base had escaped.
Fighting has surged over the past year between anti-junta forces, who include pro-democracy activists and ethnic minority rebels - and the military that seized power in early 2021 with the overthrow of a government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Anti-junta forces have made significant gains in several parts of the country but they lack the weapons to take on the junta’s air force, which has increasingly been unleashing devastating attacks on the insurgents and on civilians in areas under their control.
The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said in June that military airstrikes against civilian targets increased five-fold in the first half of the year
A spokesman for the junta, which denies targeting civilians, was not immediately available for comment on the reported attack on the air base.
A former air force officer who now supports the campaign to end military rule told RFA aircraft flying out of Hmawbi mostly attack in Kayah state in the east and the Tanintharyi region in the south.
“Hmawbi Air Base is close to Kayah state and Tanintharyi so the aircraft are used in operations in those areas,'' said the former officer, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
The base is also a hub for the distribution of jet fuel across the country and for aircraft maintenance and parts, he added.
Dark Shadow and its allies have launched urban attacks on the junta and its facilities, including air bases before.
Junta authorities arrested seven people in June for plotting a rocket attack on the junta leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, as he attended a bridge opening ceremony in Yangon. Dark Shadow said at the time its members were involved in that.
Two of those arrested for that plot died after being tortured during interrogation, a Dark Shadow spokesperson told Radio Free Asia in August.
Another anti-junta activist, Nan Lin, head of a group called the University Students’ Union Alumni Force, said prospects were grim for the two detained members of Dark Shadow.
“The way we see it, once revolutionary soldiers have been arrested, it’s unimaginable we’ll ever see them again or they’ll be protected according to the law,” Nan Lin told RFA on Thursday.
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Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.