YANGON • Unidentified attackers fired rockets at two Myanmar air bases yesterday, but there were no casualties and only minor damage, in another sign of deteriorating security since the military overthrew an elected government three months ago.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks, which the military confirmed at a news briefing.
While the armed forces have been battling insurgents in remote frontier areas for decades, attacks on such high-profile military facilities in central areas have been rare.
In the first attack, four rockets were fired at an air base near the central town of Magway in the early hours, an announcer at the military news briefing said on a feed posted on the Internet.
Three of the rockets hit farms and one fell on a road. One building at the base was slightly damaged but no one was hurt, she said.
Earlier media reports said security checks had been stepped up on roads outside the base after the explosions.
Later, five rockets were fired at one of the country's main air bases, at Meiktila, which is also in central Myanmar, from a farm to the north of the base. There was no damage or any casualties.
"The security process is going on to arrest the attackers," the announcer said.
Reporter Than Win Hlaing, who was near the Meiktila base at the time, posted a video clip that included the sound of one of the rockets flying overhead followed by a blast.
Since the Feb 1 ouster of an elected government led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy protests have rocked cities and towns.
The military has cracked down with lethal force, with an activist group saying 756 people had been killed.
Fighting between the military and ethnic minority insurgents has also flared since the coup, with the military launching numerous air strikes in border lands in the north and east of the country.
Separately, the Bago Watch news agency reported a series of explosions at a weapons storage facility near the central town of Bago yesterday. It did not mention casualties or give a cause for the blasts.
There was no mention of the Bago incident during the military briefing.
In a sign of the military's determination to crush dissent, state television announced late on Wednesday that the authorities were seeking to charge one of the main leaders of the pro-democracy protests with murder and treason.
Mr Wai Moe Naing, 25, was arrested on April 15 when security men rammed him with a car as he led a motorbike protest rally in the central town of Monywa.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper has reported that Mr Wai Moe Naing's group was linked to several explosions of "homemade grenades" in Monywa.
REUTERS
