At least 116 POWs killed in Myanmar Junta's airstrikes in Rakhine

Guwahati: At least 116 Myanmar junta soldiers held as prisoners of war were killed and 32 others injured when the military launched airstrikes on a detention facility run by the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State’s Ann Township on Sunday.

A statement released by the Arakan Army said the prison, located in the Dar Lat Chaung area of Ann Township, was bombed for more than three hours beginning around 11 a.m. The attack involved four fighter jets and a Y-12 military aircraft.

According to the organisation, the facility housed captured regime soldiers as well as a number of ordinary criminal detainees. Some of the civilian prisoners were also reportedly killed in the bombing.

The Arakan Army said the airstrikes targeted the compound where the captured troops were being held following the fall of the Myanmar military’s Western Command headquarters in Ann township in December 2024.

The headquarters was seized during a major offensive by the AA that culminated in the capture of the strategic town of Ann, a key military hub linking Rakhine State with central Myanmar. Hundreds of junta soldiers, including several senior officers, were taken prisoner during the operation.

Local media reports said the Sunday bombing was among the deadliest incidents involving prisoners captured during the ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and ethnic resistance forces.

The AA accused the junta of deliberately targeting its own captured troops in an attempt to prevent their release or potential defection.

Myanmar’s military has not issued an official statement on the incident.

The country has been engulfed in widespread conflict since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, triggering armed resistance movements and renewed fighting with ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) across several regions.

Airstrikes by the junta have increasingly been used against areas controlled by resistance forces, particularly in Rakhine State where the Arakan Army has expanded its territorial control.

The Arakan Army is one of the most powerful ethnic armed organisations fighting the junta and now controls large parts of Rakhine State following a series of major battlefield victories since late 2023.