Resistance drone units targeted Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s residence, his military headquarters and a major airbase in the regime’s administrative capital on Thursday morning, according to a unit involved in the attacks.
The strikes damaged Aye Lar military airbase next to Naypyitaw International Airport.
Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) claimed responsibility for the airbase attack, saying special forces of its People’s Defense Force (PDF) armed wing and the Shar Htoo Waw’s Lethal Prop Weapon Team had conducted the assault.
A simultaneous assault was launched on the junta’s fortified military headquarters in Naypyitaw by PDF special forces and Shar Htoo Waw’s Kloud Drone Team, the NUG said, adding that preliminary reports indicated casualties at both sites.
The statement did not offer details of the attack on Min Aung Hlaing’s residence.
A spokesperson for Shar Htoo Waw’s Kloud Drone Team told The Irrawaddy they had used 28 drones for the three targets in Thursday’s operation, which had taken nearly five months to prepare.
“We used 12 drones for the headquarters, 12 for the airbase and four for Min Aung Hlaing’s residence,” she said.
- Fragments of what appear to be a resistance drone shot down by the junta’s air defenses at Aye Lar airbase in Naypyitaw on Thursday.
“Right now, we only know that the attacks caused some damage. We are waiting for more details.”
In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon, the junta claimed its air defenses had shot down four drones heading to the airport and three others zeroing in on Zeyar Thiri Township, where its military headquarters is located. It said no damage was caused by the drone strikes. Hours later, the junta said in evening news that it had intercepted 13 fixed-wing drones altogether, four carrying explosives. The news report showing an image of nine small drones, some damaged.
Sources in Naypyitaw said the drone attack shut down the airport after damaging the runway it shares with the airbase. The airbase previously came under attack in September last year.
A major regime airbase, Aye Lar hosts jet fighters like SU-30s, two Fokker 70 airliners reserved for junta boss Min Aung Hlaing, and other transport planes. Sources said the airbase is heavily fortified with signal-jammers to prevent drone strikes.
Over the past few months, Myanmar resistance forces have intensified aerial attacks on regime targets with improvised fixed-wing drones.
As well as last September’s attack on Aye Lar airbase, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allied forces conducted successful drone strikes on the junta’s Myawaddy District Administration Department Office in Karen State’s Myawaddy Town, killing at least five regime personnel including a district administrator and a military battalion commander.
At an emergency meeting of the National Defense and Security Council in November last year, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing admitted that junta positions in northern Shan State were being bombarded mainly with drones. Junta Home Affairs Minister Lt-General Yar Pyae told a meeting in Indonesia last year that drones have become the regime’s future challenge.
The NUG’s Defense Ministry said in late 2023 that it had distributed over 400 drones to battalions of its PDF armed wing for operations across the country.
The story was updated on April 5 with the number of drones shot down as claimed by the junta.
