Mizzima-Feb 10
As the war in Myanmar’s Arakan State enters a decisive phase, one pattern has become impossible to ignore: the military council’s growing reliance on air power to strike former army bases it has already lost to the Arakan Army (AA). Far from signaling strength, these attacks reveal a regime that is losing control on the ground and clinging to symbols of authority in a conflict that is steadily slipping beyond its grasp. On February 7, junta aircraft bombed the headquarters of Strategic Operations Command 15 in Buthidaung Township, territory the AA fully seized in May 2024. Reports indicate that the strikes did not merely hit abandoned military infrastructure but also affected areas where prisoners of war and their family members were being held, with casualties still being assessed. This was not an isolated incident. In recent months, the junta has repeatedly targeted former military installations across Arakan: from a Regional Military Command site in Minbya Township in January to abandoned battalion bases in Ponnagyun Township last year. Since late 2023, the balance of power in Arakan has shifted dramatically. The Arakan Army now controls most of the state, including key towns, transport routes, and border areas. The junta has lost effective ground control over at least 14 townships and has been pushed back to a handful of urban strongholds, most notably Sittwe. Deprived of territorial dominance, logistics corridors, and local intelligence networks, the military council has increasingly turned to air power as its primary tool of warfare. Fighter jets, helicopter gunships, and transport aircraft retrofitted for bombing have become substitutes for ground forces the junta can no longer deploy safely or sustainably. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/02/10/31112
