Junta airstrikes against ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) in areas they control frequently result in the death of regime troops captured by the resistance and their families.
The Irrawaddy has documented four such attacks last year and two more as of Jan. 27 this year that killed more than 105 people including children.
The attacks happened in hotbeds of fighting between junta troops in Rakhine State, northern Shan and Chin states as well as Bago Region.
During resistance attempts to seize military outposts, many junta troops and their families surrendered and were taken prisoner.
Resistance forces claim that these are targeted attacks and primarily aim to silence the junta’s own troops, preventing them from confessing to war crimes and leaking regime strategies.
Pauktaw
Although there were no current clashes in surrounding areas, the junta twice bombed Shin Ywar village in Rakhine State’s Pauktaw Township in the evening of Sept. 8 last year. The airstrike killed 10 civilians and seven POWs and left 10 other villagers with severe injuries.
Pauktaw is 20 km southeast of the Rakhine capital of Sittwe and has been under the control of the AA since January 2024. During the fighting, a number of junta troops and their families surrendered to the AA and were held in several parts of the township including Shin Ywar.
Maungdaw
The day after the airstrike on Pauktaw, the military also bombed Maungdaw near the Bangladeshi border, killing over 50 prisoners, most of whom were POWs.
Two junta fighter jets dropped bombs on a temporary AA detention center at the Border Guard Police Battalion No. 2 base, which the AA had seized in July.
Here the AA detained junta troops it had captured during its offensive on Maungdaw as well as some members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO).
Some individuals linked to the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) and others who were under investigation by the AA for allegedly acting as informants for the junta were also detained here.
Since the AA resumed its fight against military and police bases in Rakhine State in Nov. 2023, it has arrested thousands of junta personnel who surrendered along with their family members. Thirteen out of Rakhine’s 17 townships are now under AA control, as is Paletwa Township in southern Chin State. The AA claims it has been taking good care of all POWs in the areas it has liberated.
Mrauk-U
On Jan 18, a junta fighter jet bombed detention centers holding family members of regime troops captured by the AA, killing 28 women and children.
The AA said the fighter jet dropped bombs three times on the camps near Yann Chaung village in Mrauk-U township, killing 19 women and nine children aged between two and 16, and injuring another 14 women and 11 children, all of them family members of detained junta troops.
In interviews with Rakhine media outlets, AA spokesman Khaing Thukha has often said that these airstrikes deliberately target places where POWs are being detained to prevent them from speaking about war crimes and massacres they committed.
Nawnghkio
The following month, the junta launched a similar airstrike targeting its own troops who were still being held by a resistance group. On Oct. 28 and 29, the junta launched airstrikes on a detention center of the Mandalay People’s Defense Force (MDY-PDF) in Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State.
Here it held junta troops who had surrendered during MDY-PDF offensives with the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance. The airstrikes killed 16 people, including 12 military personnel, among them Major Nay Win (43).
“Although we have been treating the prisoners of war well according to law, the junta’s military council targeted its own troops,” the MDY-PDF said in a statement.
Kyaukkyi
On the morning of Feb. 25 last year, six junta fighter jets bombarded an area where the Karen National Union (KNU)’s police department is based in Palaw Maw Kho village in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi Township, which lies in the area controlled by the KNU’s Brigade 3. The airstrike killed one detained junta soldier and left 10 others injured.
Falam
On Jan 4 this year, the junta launched an airstrike on Kuanglung village in Chin State’s Falam Township that killed seven captive junta soldiers as well as member of the Chin National Defense Force (CNDF). Four other captive soldiers were injured and a school and a clinic were damaged, according to the CNDF. The anti-regime Chin Brotherhood and its allies have been attacking Light Infantry Battalion 268 in Falam, which is the only remaining junta base in the town.
