MYANMAR MILITARY BASE ATTACKED

Anti-junta group says it sent drones to hit army-ruled Naypyidaw

AMILITARY base in the capital of army-ruled Myanmar came under attack by drones yesterday, the shadow government and local media said, an attack a local armed resistance group claimed responsibility for.

The information could not be independently confirmed and the military government could not immediately be reached for confirmation the incident had taken place.

The National Unity Government (NUG), an alliance of antijunta groups formed to undermine military rule in the wake of a 2021 coup, said the attack was carried out in Naypyidaw, but provided no details on the drones or weapons used, or whether the base sustained any damage.

State-controlled media outlets carried no news of the reported incident.

If confirmed, the incident could be a major blow to the credibility of a military that is facing its biggest test since first taking power of the former British colony in 1962.

The junta has been fighting on multiple fronts to contain uprisings around the country and stabilise an economy that has wilted since the coup.

Naypyidaw is the seat of power for the military government and home to much of its defence hardware, built in a remote area of central Myanmar about two decades ago by the previous junta that had ruled for more than two decades.

A spokesman for the NUG’s affiliate in Naypyidaw, the People’s Defence Force (PDF), said it carried out the attack under the instruction of the NUG’s Defence Ministry and said it took place in two locations, one of which was an air force base.

It did not provide details of the attack.

The NUG’s Defence Ministry could not immediately be reached for details of the alleged attack.

Myanmar is locked in a civil war between the military on one side and, on the other, a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebels and so-called PDFs, a movement spawned out of the junta’s bloody crackdown on anti-coup protests.

Its military-installed president last year said the country was at risk of breaking apart, while its ruling general in a national address last week called for unity among the people and military to fight armed groups with foreign backing who were seeking to destroy the country and derail plans to hold an election.