Min Aung Hlaing Narrowly Escaped Rocket Attack in Mandalay: Military Sources

Myanmar junta boss Min Aung Hlaing narrowly escaped an improvised rocket attack last month in Mandalay, where he planned to perform a yadaya—a traditional Burmese ritual believed to avert misfortune—according to military sources.

The Naypyitaw-based sources told The Irrawaddy that the military’s Central Military Command (CMC) based in the Mandalay Palace compound was hit by the attack early on the morning of January 27. Min Aung Hlaing had spent the previous night there in preparation for the ritual, for which he dressed in Burmese royal regalia and planned to enter the palace via the Mingalar Bridge at 4:41 a.m.—deemed an auspicious time—hoping to bring himself luck amid the ongoing civil war and for the post-election era. With the regime-organized vote now complete, and won by his military’s proxy party, he is widely tipped to take the country’s presidency.

The sources said the rocket missed him. “But he was in a state of shock and decided to lay low for a week,” they said.