{"id":61319,"date":"2024-01-20T21:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/jan\/20\/myanmar-rebels-junta-above-drones"},"modified":"2024-01-20T21:00:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T12:00:02","slug":"we-killed-many-drones-are-our-air-force-myanmars-rebels-take-on-the-junta-from-above","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=61319","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We killed many \u2026 drones are our air force\u2019: Myanmar\u2019s rebels take on the junta from above"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A rebel drone squadron drawn from engineering students and hobbyists, who gain battlefield training partly through YouTube tutorials, is proving decisive in the struggle against Myanmar\u2019s brutal military government<\/p>\n<p>As the drones flew silently over western Myanmar\u2019s Chin hills, the junta did not know what was about to hit them. Their operators were hidden a few hundred metres away in the dense forest. As the images on their screens indicated the drone fleet was hovering exactly above the target \u2013 a key military base in the town of Lailenpi \u2013 they hit the button on their controllers and bombs began to fall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had precise hits,\u201d said Noah, 20, one of the specialist drone fighters in the Chin National Army (CNA), one of the ethnic rebel groups who have been fighting Myanmar\u2019s military for almost three years. \u201cIt took them by surprise. We killed many, including the second-in-command of the base.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/jan\/20\/myanmar-rebels-junta-above-drones\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rebel drone squadron drawn from engineering students and hobbyists, who gain battlefield training partly through YouTube tutorials, is proving decisive in the struggle against Myanmar\u2019s brutal military governmentAs the drones flew silently over weste&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[982,82,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drones-military","category-myanmar","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61320,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61319\/revisions\/61320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}