Myanmar accused of bombing its own POWs

The Irrawaddy

The Myanmar military has been accused of deliberately killing its own captured soldiers in a devastating airstrike on a prisoner-of-war camp in Rakhine State.

On 8 March, four fighter jets and four Y-12 aircraft bombarded a facility run by the Arakan Army (AA) in Dar Lat Chaung for more than three hours. The attack killed 116 regime troops, including a brigadier general and several majors, alongside an unknown number of civilian detainees. Thirty-two others were injured.

Former Brigadier General Thaung Tun, who survived the assault, told local media that the junta had carried out reconnaissance flights in the weeks before the strike and would have known its own men were being held there. “It was clear and obvious that the place was a prison. The regime bombed it knowingly in an act of extreme cruelty,” he said.

Among those killed was Brigadier General Myin Shwe. Survivors described scenes of chaos as AA prison officers and detainees broke down doors to evacuate prisoners under fire. “What I saw was heartbreaking and deeply saddening,” Thaung Tun added.

Another survivor, former army sergeant Thein Lwin, condemned the regime’s actions as a betrayal. He said the AA had treated prisoners with “brotherly compassion”, even providing medical care, while the junta chose to kill its own.

Regime-backed propaganda outlets quickly blamed the AA, claiming it had set fire to the prison. Analysts, however, suggest the military is targeting its captured personnel as a warning to serving troops that surrender will not be tolerated.

This is not the first time such allegations have surfaced. In January, airstrikes on AA detention centres killed dozens of captured soldiers and their families, including children. Similar attacks last year struck former junta bases and clinics treating prisoners, leaving scores dead.

The AA has seized control of 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships since launching a major offensive in late 2023, as well as territory in neighbouring Chin State. With the ethnic army now pressing towards the state capital Sittwe and strategic Kyaukphyu Township, the junta has increasingly relied on air power, striking schools, hospitals and community sites.

The latest attack underscores the regime’s desperation as it struggles to regain lost ground. For many observers, it also highlights the extraordinary brutality of a military willing to sacrifice its own soldiers rather than allow them to live under enemy control.

-2025-03-13