Armed resistance groups in Ayadaw township announced on September 10 that they had blown up 11 military-owned Mytel telecommunication towers in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region.

Ayadaw PDF said that as Mytel towers in Ayadaw township were blown up on the night of September 9, four Mytel towers exploded and caught fire in the northern part of the township.

Seven Mytel towers were blown up by a Local Defense Force (LDF) in Ayadaw Township on September 8.

Eleven military-owned Mytel towers were blown up in Ayadaw Township within two days of the National Unity Government announcing on 7 September the start of a full-scale revolt against the military dictatorship.

Recently, the NUG’s Acting President Duwa Lashila urged the people of Myanmar to also target the junta’s assets.

Mytel telecommunication towers in Tantse and Pale townships in Sagaing Region and Pauk Township in Magway Region were also destroyed by local armed resistance groups.

Since the parallel government’s declaration of full-scale revolt, there were several bomb blasts across Myanmar and intense fighting also broke out between the junta’s army and local resistance groups in many areas including Sagaing Region and Chin State.

Mytel is a joint venture between the Burmese military and Viettel, which is owned by Vietnam's Ministry of National Defence.

In December last year, Justice for Myanmar highlighted that the Myanmar military’s ability to harvest personal data from Mytel users for mass surveillance purposes.

Caption: This handout from local news agency Myaelatt Athan taken on September 7, 2021, and received on September 8 shows parts of a destroyed communications tower belonging to the military-owned Mytel telecommunications company. Photo: AFP