Satellite images reveal defiance in Myanmar's streets

Updated 2150 GMT (0550 HKT) February 16, 2021

It is a struggle cut off from the world, where outside condemnation may not be heard, yet local outrage over a coup continues.

CNN has obtained powerful pictures of protest from satellite imagery specialists Maxar, where defiance against Myanmar's military junta is literally visible from space.

These images come as coup leaders levy new charges against the country's democratically elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- who is currently in detention -- and amid reports of the third night in a row of a near-total internet blackout in Myanmar.

"As we have before, we call on the Burmese military to immediately release all unjustly detained civilian and political leaders, journalists, and human rights activists and other members of civil society, as well as to restore the democratically elected government," US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a press briefing Tuesday.

"As the president has said, the military seizure of power is a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law," he added.

One image taken Tuesday shows a vast slogan written on a main thoroughfare of the city Mandalay, near what appears to be the Ministry of Information, declaring "WE WANT DEMOCRACY."

Another image from Tuesday shows the railway station in the same city seemingly devoid of commuters, but with five large, seemingly identical closed-cargo trucks -- which appear to be army personnel trucks -- parked neatly in a row in front of the main entrance. CNN has spoken to one person who attended a large protest in Mandalay on Monday. He said there was a large presence by Myanmar's security forces.