Mandalay Airport Shutters After Six-Drone Rebel Attack — SkimNews
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- Myanmar Airways International suspended all international flights to and from Mandalay's Tada-U International Airport after a drone attack by the People's Defence Force on Thursday, September 11.
- The airline is transferring domestic flights to a nearby airport until further notice, citing "operational reasons," according to a late-Thursday Facebook post.
- An airline official at the company's Bangkok office confirmed flights for September 11 and 12 are cancelled because the airport closed.
- State-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported security forces thwarted the attack, which it said involved six first-person-view suicide drones, with no casualties and no damage to vehicles or runways.
- Local media reported the resistance fighters were specifically targeting military jet fighters stationed at the airport.
- The strike lands inside Myanmar's broader civil war, which began with the February 2021 military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government; junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was elected president by a military-backed parliament in April.
Why it matters: For Myanmar's second-largest city, even a brief shutdown of its only international airport disrupts cross-border travel and commerce, while the deliberate targeting of military jets at a civilian facility shows resistance forces are escalating strikes against junta assets co-located with civilian infrastructure. Reuters noted it could not independently verify details, underscoring how opaque the conflict remains to outside observers.
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