Myanmar junta airstrike on AA-held POW camp in Maungdaw kills four, including its own captain

A Myanmar junta airstrike on a prisoner of war (POW) camp near Kyein Chaung village in northern Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State, killed four people on 2 July, including a junta captain, according to local sources. Junta forces struck the Kyein Chaung camp — which holds junta soldiers captured by the Arakan Army (AA) — at approximately 3:00 PM, deploying both jet fighters and modified civilian aircraft. “Yesterday afternoon, right after we heard the planes, the bombs started falling continuously. The ground shook. They intentionally bombed this camp, knowing full well that their own captured soldiers were held here. The noise was terrifying,” a local male resident told Mizzima. Between 3:00 PM and 3:13 PM, two jet fighters carried out six airstrikes, dropping six 500-pound bombs. From 3:17 PM to 3:32 PM, a Y-12 aircraft then completed five bombing runs, releasing an additional 27 bombs — a total of 33 bombs dropped within minutes. The bombardment killed four people instantly, including a junta captain who had been assigned to provide medical care to the POWs, after they were hit by shrapnel. The attack also destroyed and collapsed several prison wards housing the detainees. The strike follows a similar attack on 9 September 2024, when a junta airstrike on the 4-Mile (NaKaKha-2) outpost in Maungdaw killed over 50 people, including POWs and civilian detainees, and injured more than 80 others, according to an AA statement. As clashes intensify across Rakhine State, this is the second known junta airstrike on a facility holding its own captured soldiers within the past year.