Myanmar Airport Suspends Flights After Drone Strike on Aircraft
"Currently, due to the damage to the apron at the airport, a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) has been issued to temporarily suspend flight operations at Myitkyina Airport," the Council said, according to a statement published in the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.
The closure of the Kachin State capital's airport follows a February 20 assault in which the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the People's Defense Force (PDF) — the armed wing of the National Unity Government — deployed suicide drones against a Myanmar National Airlines passenger aircraft as it prepared to depart for Mandalay. The attack inflicted structural damage across the front, middle, and rear sections of the plane, the Council said. Authorities are actively working to restore normal flight operations.
The strike marks yet another escalation in a country that has been mired in civil war since the February 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, triggering over four years of emergency rule. That state of emergency officially lapsed last July.
Myanmar subsequently conducted a three-phase general election between December 28 and January 25.
The human toll of the conflict remains staggering. Rights monitors estimate more than 6,000 lives have been lost and nearly three million people uprooted since the military seized power — a crisis that shows no signs of abating as ethnic armed groups intensify their campaigns against the junta.
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