The Asiapost News

Dhaka, May 8, 2025 – A four-member U.S. Air Force team touched down in Dhaka on Wednesday, checking into the Westin Hotel in Gulshan, according to high-placed Bangladeshi security sources. This advance unit, led by Tara Lynn Alexzandria Stryder, Director of Logistics with Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Intelligence (TS/SCI) clearance and a combat mission support commander, is paving the way for a massive and classified cargo drop expected to land soon by air.

The team includes private contractors tied to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). One member, David Thomas Reifenber, doubles as a Product Sales Manager at DFS Group Limited, though his role in the operation remains murky. Sources say this move points to a beefy U.S. military play, likely tied to escalating tensions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where the Arakan Army is stirring the pot.

This isn’t the first U.S. military rodeo in Bangladesh recently. In mid-April, a 20-25-strong U.S. team rolled into Dhaka, bunked at the Bangladesh Army’s Ramu cantonment, and slipped into Rakhine State by early May. The latest arrival has Bangladesh’s security brass on edge, with National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman and Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman huddling in secret to hash out what this means for Dhaka.

The U.S. has been eyeballing Rakhine State hard, with prior visits from bigwigs like Lieutenant General Joel Vowell and Senator Gary Peters pushing for tighter military ties. With Bangladesh as a key staging ground, this Air Force team and the incoming cargo could signal Washington’s ready to crank up the heat in the region. Details on the cargo are locked down, but whispers suggest it’s heavy-duty gear for a serious operation.

The U.S. focus ties into the Rakhine/Rohingya crisis, where Myanmar’s military crackdowns have displaced over a million Rohingya, many fleeing to Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps. Tensions in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) also simmer, with indigenous groups clashing over land and autonomy, fueling local unrest. Adding fuel to the fire, Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s interim leader, has drawn flak for his handling of these crises, with critics slamming his vague calls for peace as tone-deaf and his economic focus as sidelining the Rohingya’s plight and CHT’s volatility.