Myanmar's Mandalay airport shuts after drone attack

Sept 11 (Reuters) - Flight operations ‌at the ​international ​airport serving Myanmar's second-largest city have been shut down, according to a major domestic airline, following a drone ‌attack on Thursday by rebels fighting the country's military ⁠in a protracted civil war.

Myanmar Airways International said on its official Facebook page ‌late on Thursday that ‌all international flights to and from Mandalay's Tada-U International Airport have been temporarily suspended. Domestic flights are being transferred to ​a nearby airport until further notice for "operational reasons".

"Flights to Mandalay on September 11 and 12 are cancelled," an official at ⁠Myanmar Airways International's Bangkok office said on Friday, without giving their name. "The flights are ​cancelled because the airport closed."

State-run Global New Light of Myanmar said security forces thwarted an attack by the ​People's Defence Force, a pro-democracy militant ‌group, which fired six first-person-view suicide drones at the airport.

"The attack temporarily disrupted some domestic flights. ⁠However, no casualties or damage to vehicles or airport runways were reported," the newspaper said.

Local media reported that resistance forces were targeting military ⁠jet fighters at the airport.

Reuters could not independently verify the situation.

Myanmar has been ​gripped by conflict since the ousting of an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 2021 coup, sparking a nationwide resistance ‌movement that has evolved into a civil war between the military and an array of armed ‌ethnic groups and pro-democracy militias.

Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's former junta chief, ⁠was elected president by ‌a military-backed parliament in ​April, formalising his grip on power after five years of army rule.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by ‌David Stanway)

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