No way out: Junta airstrike leaves prisoners burned alive in AA camp

Dalet Chaung is the kind of place where life once moved with the rhythm of rivers and harvests. Tucked deep in the mountains more than 20 miles northwest of the town of Ann, its villages have long depended on fishing and farming, until war arrived and stayed. Clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) have scarred the area for years. But the AA’s offensive, launched on November 13, 2023, Operation 1027, changed everything. As junta positions collapsed, including the regime’s Western Command and Ann Airport, dozens of officers and soldiers surrendered en masse. What followed transformed Dalet Chaung into something else entirely: a network of prison camps spread across more than 40 villages, holding captured troops. And then on March 8, that fragile new reality turned deadly.The camp comprises six dormitories numbered 1 to 6. Dormitory 5, called the “Iron Prison”, holds more than 400 prisoners of war, mostly from the Western Command and junta headquarters. To keep them from escaping, the AA secured most of the prisoners with iron shackles.For prisoners of war, Sunday is a day of rest, with work paused and routines eased. Major Hein Phyo Naing, who sustained a head wound, is seen near a cave dug into a mountainside used for shelter. (Photo: Phadu Tun Aung / Myanmar Now) On other days, prisoners rotate tasks such as repairing roads, tending vegetable plots and collecting firewood. Around 9am they are fed outside the prison, finishing by mid-morning before returning to their dormitories, sources say. On that Sunday, 41-year-old Major Hein Phyo Naing returned to Dormitory 6 at around 11 am, shortly after eating. Moments later, he heard a jet overhead. Within moments, a bomb struck nearby. He dropped to the floor as Prison Building 4, just a few feet away, was hit and burst into flames.The first bomb struck a hut near the prison where AA security personnel were stationed. Sources say around 30 seconds later, a second bomb slammed directly into Dormitory 4. The prison’s Dormitories 4 and 6 stood side by side, fragile structures of bamboo, wood and thatch, with woven mats laid across the floors. Nearby, caves had been carved into the mountainside, offering what was meant to be protection from air raids. But Hein Phyo Naing said there was no time to reach them. Flames tore through the buildings within moments. Fire leapt from Dormitory 4 to Dormitory 6, swallowing both structures as the main wooden exit collapsed, sealing the prisoners inside. Prisoners who could not escape in time were trapped as the fire closed in. Two AA prisoner-of-war officers said several of the injured—unable to move—were left behind and burned to death. Of the nearly 80 prisoners of war in Dormitory 4, which was hit directly, almost all were killed, with only two surviving.Captain Aung Thu from Dormitory 6 told Myanmar Now that the two survivors were also wounded.“Shrapnel tore through one side of Dormitory 6, the section closest to Dormitory 4,” he said. “Some were killed instantly by flying debris, rocks and splintered beams blown from the neighbouring building.”Hein Phyo Naing said the chaos left them no choice but to run, and when the fire reached Dormitory 6, he fled for his life, taking shelter in a cave carved into the mountainside.“At that time, our building was also ablaze,” he said. “Some prisoners were struck by bomb shrapnel—some lost their legs, others were hit in the head. I received a grazing wound on my head.” Hein Phyo Naing added that most of those inside were trapped and unable to escape, as the thatch-roofed buildings caught fire quickly, making any rescue impossible. He said the chaos prevented even basic attempts to reach the injured, with some survivors left inside as the flames spread—many thrown down by the blast, others unable to rise as the fire closed in. “From inside the cave, we could hear them calling for help and screaming in the pain of their burns,” Hein Phyo Naing continued. “We were powerless to risk going out to rescue them.” The ‘Iron Prison’Photos released by the AA after the air raid show dead and wounded prisoners still in iron shackles, with scorched iron-barred cells visible in the aftermath. The armed group said 116 prisoners were killed and 32 injured during the four-hour attack, though allegations later emerged that the AA themselves had burned the prisoners. In response, the AA invited local media to tour the site on March 17. Several civilian inmates were killed or injured, along with around 10 AA security personnel. Prisoners said Dormitory 5—the “Iron Prison” housing the sick and injured—recorded just one death, as most managed to reach bomb shelters when nearby buildings were hit, leaving one injured prisoner unable to escape.“When the bombs fell, their dormitory, Iron Prison, was not directly hit,” Hein Phyo Naing said. “However, sparks from the nearby burning thatch roofs spread to theirs, igniting a fire. The Iron Prison itself was not struck by any bombs.”The airstrike killed multiple prisoners of war, including several senior officers and medical personnel. Major Pyae Phyo Lwin, an obstetrician and gynecologist, expressed profound sorrow over their deaths.“At the same time, we clung to hope, walking this journey together with the expectation of returning home when the time came,” he said. “I feel great sorrow for the families of the soldiers who lost their lives, meeting such an unexpected and tragic fate.”Captain Aung Myint Myat, a medical captain, also described his experience during the air raid. While attending to his patients, he heard nearby explosions, so he and the AA medics quickly moved the patients into trenches for safety.“Even while we were moving, the Y-12 dropped another series of bombs,” he said. “At least eight to 10 in our hospital area. About three struck the trenches where patients had been after we relocated them, and three or four hit the hospital compound itself.” “The air support in this attack was far heavier than what we experienced during the battles at Western Command headquarters,” he said. “Even when our Western Command was under attack, it wasn’t this intense. This bombing is exceptionally severe.” Prison Dormitory No. 5—known as the “Iron Prison”—at a detention site holding prisoners captured during fighting. (Photo: Phadu Tun Aung / Myanmar Now) ‘The intensity was unimaginable’ Colonel Thet Htoo San said he never imagined that soldiers who gave their lives fighting for the military junta would face such aerial bombings, and that only the junta would know the reasons for carrying out the attack. “Because we are all here together, mixed with Arakan Army members, it doesn’t matter who the intended target was,” he said. “An air strike is not like a small-arms weapon that can hit a single person precisely—the blast and destructive force impacts everything in the area, bringing widespread death and destruction.” For Brigadier General Thaung Htun, who never expected to become a prisoner of war, the day of the bombing has left him devastated. He told Myanmar Now that he was deeply shaken seeing his subordinates and colleagues killed by the bombing, and others burned or injured in the fire that followed. Captured junta officers Col Thet Htoo San and Capt Aung Myint Myat are shown in detention as prisoners of war. (Photo: Phadu Tun Aung / Myanmar Now) “I went into shock as soon as it happened,” he said. “Even for a few seconds, if you put yourself in the shoes of those who were burned to death, you can feel the immense suffering they endured.” He said he struggled to understand why the prison had been targeted in the first place, noting it had no clear link to the fighting. A single stray bomb might have been explained, he said, but the scale of the strike made it clear that it was a deliberate attempt to kill the junta troops in detention. This was not the first time the military junta had bombed regime prisoner-of-war camps where its own soldiers were held—similar attacks have occurred before, the last attack in early March in Mese Township, Karenni State.In 2024 and early 2025, multiple AA prison camps were hit by airstrikes, including attacks in Pauktaw and Mrauk-U that killed dozens. A strike in Maungdaw in September 2024 alone left more than 50 prisoners dead.The AA, which controls most of Rakhine State, holds thousands of prisoners of war and their families, though some have been released in recent months. Before the bombing, the Dalet Chaung camp was filled with movement and quiet voices. Now, it lies silent, more like a graveyard. The waters of Dalet Chaung still flow as they always have, and the mornings in the area remain calm. Yet, grief rages in the hearts of the regime prisoners who survived that day. “None of us—whether in our personal lives, our military service, or among our colleagues—have ever faced anything like this,” Thet Htoo San said. “The intensity was unimaginable. Even now, every time I hear a plane, the fear that it might be coming to bomb us stays with me, even at the moment of this interview.”

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