YANGON (Reuters) - Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar police in the latest attack in the country’s western Rakhine State, the government said on Sunday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.

Villagers heard gunfire as fighters from the armed group, which recruits from the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, raided a police post in the village of Yoe Ta Yoke late on Saturday night.

The Myanmar Ministry of Information said on its Facebook page that nine police, all of them recruits from nearby the village, were confirmed dead and one other was still missing on Sunday.

“Around 60 members of the AA terrorist group attacked using small and large weapons,” the statement said.

The insurgent Arakan Army killed 13 police in a similar attack further north in January and has frequently clashed with Myanmar security forces since December.

Myanmar’s leaders vowed to crush the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for Rakhine, but clashes have spread to new areas, displacing more than 5,000 people in all. Authorities have declared large parts of the north of the state off-limits to most aid agencies.

In 2017, attacks on security posts by insurgents from the Muslim Rohingya minority provoked a military crackdown in the north of the state. U.N. agencies say more than 730,000 people fled into camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.

Saturday night’s attack took place about 50 km (31 miles) north of the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, along the main road connecting the city with the rest of Myanmar.

A villager in his fifties told Reuters that two policemen stationed at the post survived the attack, which took place shortly after 11 p.m.

“The battle went on for about 20 minutes,” said the villager, who asked not to be named. “I was in village at that time and I heard gun shots, but the villagers didn’t run away.”

Myanmar’s military said in a separate statement on Sunday that troops clashed on Saturday with about 200 men from the Arakan Army at a different location, along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh.</s>Bodies of policemen killed in an attack at the Yoe Ta Yoke police station.

YANGON: Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar policemen in the latest attack in the country's western Rakhine State, the government said yesterday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.

Villagers heard gunfire as fighters from the armed group, which recruits from the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, raided a police post in the village of Yoe Ta Yoke late on Saturday night.

The Myanmar Ministry of Information said on its Facebook page that nine policemen, all of them recruits from the village, were confirmed dead and one other was still missing.

"Around 60 members of the AA terrorist group attacked using small and large weapons," the statement said.

Saturday night's attack took place about 50km north of the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, along the main road connecting the city with the rest of Myanmar.

A villager in his 50s told Reuters that two policemen stationed at the post survived the attack, which took place shortly after 11 pm local time.

"The battle went on for about 20 minutes," said the villager, who asked not to be named. "I was in the village at that time and I heard gun shots, but the villagers didn't run away."

The insurgent Arakan Army killed 13 policemen in a similar attack further north in January and has frequently clashed with Myanmar security forces since December.

Myanmar's leaders vowed to crush the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for Rakhine, but clashes have spread to new areas, displacing more than 5,000 people.

Authorities have declared large parts of the north of the state off-limits to most aid agencies.

In 2017, attacks on security posts by insurgents from the Muslim Rohingya minority provoked a military crackdown in the state.</s>YANGON: Nine policemen have been killed in a militant attack in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, police said on Sunday (Mar 10), as tensions ratchet up in a state riven by ethnic and religious conflict.

A bloody military crackdown in 2017 forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims over the border into Bangladesh in violence UN investigators have said warrants the prosecution of top generals for genocide and crimes against humanity.

But the armed forces are now waging a war against a militant group claiming to represent the state's ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, a population that also stands accused of aiding soldiers in their expulsion of the Rohingya.

The Arakan Army (AA) has in recent months mounted several attacks on security forces and officials in its struggle for more autonomy and rights for Rakhine people.

The latest attack occurred late Saturday took place in Yoetayoke village, just an hour north of Rakhine state's capital Sittwe.

Nine police were killed, one was injured and another one is missing, a senior police officer told AFP, not wanting to be named.

A leaked police report said weapons were also taken from the police station.

No group has yet claimed responsibility and the AA could not immediately be reached for comment.

A local administrator confirmed investigations are under way.

Northern Rakhine state is inaccessible outside of carefully government-chaperoned trips and information is difficult to verify independently.

But swathes of the state?s north are once again engulfed in conflict.

The military has brought in thousands of reinforcements and is bombarding AA positions with heavy artillery.

Several thousand people have been forced from their homes by the violence.

Yet there is widespread support for the AA's cause across much of Rakhine, one of the poorest states in the country, where many feel they have suffered decades of discrimination by the state.

Some 100 local administrators submitted their resignation en masse this month calling for the release of four colleagues reportedly arrested for having links with the AA.

The verdict in a treason trial against a popular Rakhine politician is also expected in the coming days and could prove to be a further flashpoint.

Aye Maung stands accused of treason after allegedly inciting Rakhine people in a speech last year to take arms and rise up against the country's ethnic-Bamar (Burmese) majority.

The AA has expanded its ranks since its formation in 2009 and is now believed to have several thousand recruits.

The group ramped up operations at the end of last year, but it was a deadly attack on four police posts on Independence Day early January that focused the country?s attention and triggered the military's swift retaliation.

Thirteen police officers were killed in the brazen attack and in an unprecedented move the civilian government instructed the military to crack down on the insurgents.

Violence in strife-torn Rakhine was glossed over by Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a recent investment forum where she touted the state?s "untapped" economic potential and blamed the international community for focusing "narrowly" on its problems.</s>Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar police in the latest attack in the country’s western Rakhine State, a local official said Sunday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.

Villagers heard gunfire as fighters from the armed group, which recruits from the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, raided a police post in the village of Yoe Ta Yoke late on Saturday night.

The village’s administrator San Aung Thein confirmed nine police were killed by the Arakan Army there, but said he did not have additional details about the attack.

Reuters was unable to reach police officials for comment.

The insurgent Arakan Army killed 13 police in a similar attack farther north in January and has frequently clashed with Myanmar security forces since December.

Myanmar’s leaders vowed to crush the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy for Rakhine, but clashes have spread to new areas, displacing more than 5,000 people in all. Authorities have declared large parts of the north of the state off-limits to most aid agencies.

In 2017, attacks on security posts by insurgents from the Muslim Rohingya minority provoked a military crackdown in the north of the state. U.N. agencies say more than 730,000 people fled into camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.

Saturday night’s attack took place about 50 km (31 miles) north of the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, along the main road connecting the city with the rest of Myanmar.

A villager in his 50s told Reuters that two policemen stationed at the post survived the attack, which took place shortly after 11 p.m. local time.

“The battle went on for about 20 minutes,” said the villager, who asked not to be named. “I was in village at that time and I heard gun shots, but the villagers didn’t run away.”</s>Rakhine rebels kill nine in fresh strike on Myanmar police: official

Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar police in the latest attack in the country’s western Rakhine State, a local official said on Sunday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.</s>One cop is injured, while another one is missing

YANGON, Myanmar – Nine policemen have been killed in a militant attack in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, police said on Sunday, March 10, as tensions ratchet up in a state riven by ethnic and religious conflict.

A bloody military crackdown in 2017 forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims over the border into Bangladesh in violence United Nations investigators have said warrants the prosecution of top generals for genocide and crimes against humanity.

But the armed forces are now waging a war against a militant group claiming to represent the state’s ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, a population that also stands accused of aiding soldiers in their expulsion of the Rohingya.

The Arakan Army (AA) has in recent months mounted several attacks on security forces and officials in its struggle for more autonomy and rights for Rakhine people.

The attack late Saturday took place in Yoetayoke village, just an hour north of Rakhine state’s capital Sittwe.

Images seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) showed bodies lying on the ground, covered in blankets with a pool of blood soaking into the dust in the grounds of the ramshackle police station.

“Nine police were killed, one was injured and another one is missing,” a senior police officer told AFP, not wanting to be named.

A leaked police report said weapons were also taken from the police post.

No group has yet claimed responsibility and the AA could not immediately be reached for comment.

Engulfed in conflict

Northern Rakhine state is inaccessible outside of carefully government-chaperoned trips and the information is difficult to verify independently.

But swathes of the state’s north are once again engulfed in conflict.

The military has brought in thousands of reinforcements and is bombarding AA positions with heavy artillery.

Several thousand people have been forced from their homes by the violence.

Yet there is widespread support for the AA’s cause across much of Rakhine, one of the poorest states in the country, where many feel they have suffered decades of discrimination by the state.

Some 100 local administrators submitted their resignation en masse this month calling for the release of four colleagues reportedly arrested for having links with the AA.

The verdict in a treason trial against a popular Rakhine politician is also expected in the coming days and could prove to be a further flashpoint.

Aye Maung stands accused of treason after allegedly inciting Rakhine people in a speech last year to take arms and rise up against the country’s ethnic-Bamar (Burmese) majority.

The AA has expanded its ranks since its formation in 2009 and is now believed to have several thousand recruits.

The group ramped up operations at the end of last year, but it was a deadly attack on four police posts on Independence Day early January that focused the country’s attention and triggered the military’s swift retaliation.

Thirteen police officers were killed in the brazen attack and in an unprecedented move, the civilian government instructed the military to crack down on the insurgents.

This came just a couple of weeks after the military declared a unilateral ceasefire against ethnic armed groups on the other side of Myanmar, allowing the army to concentrate its efforts in Rakhine.

Myanmar's restive borderlands have been plagued by conflict since independence from British colonial rule 70 years ago.

Violence in strife-torn Rakhine was glossed over by Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a recent investment forum where she touted the state’s "untapped" economic potential and blamed the international community for focusing "narrowly" on its problems. – Rappler.com</s>YANGON: Nine policemen have been killed in a militant attack in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, police said on Sunday, as tensions ratchet up in a state riven by ethnic and religious conflict.

The attack late Saturday took place in Yoetayoke village, just an hour north of Rakhine state's capital Sittwe.

"Nine police were killed, one was injured and another one is missing," a senior police officer told AFP, not wanting to be named.</s>Arakan Army insurgents killed nine Myanmar police in the latest attack in the country’s western Rakhine State, the government said on Sunday, as clashes threaten to engulf a large part of the troubled region.</s>Myanmar’s Information Ministry says nine policemen were killed in an attack in the western state of Rakhine by the increasingly active Arakan Army rebel group.

The ministry’s website said 60 Arakan Army insurgents on Saturday night attacked the police post, which was safeguarding question and answer sheets from the national high school matriculation examination.

The Arakan Army, which is aligned with Rakhine’s Buddhist population, seeks autonomy for the region. Rakhine is better known as the site of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military against the Muslim Rohingya minority, causing more than 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Attacks on police by Rohingya insurgents triggered the crackdown.

The government declared the Arakan Army a terrorist organization after it killed 13 police officers and wounded nine in Jan. 4 attacks.</s>Nine policemen have been killed in a militant attack in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar. Nearly 60 members of the Arakan Army terrorist group attacked using small and large weapons.

The attack, carried out by Arakan Army insurgents, happened late yesterday in Yoetayoke village, just an hour north of Rakhine state’s capital Sittwe.

The insurgent Arakan Army killed 13 police in a similar attack further north in January and has frequently clashed with Myanmar security forces since December.
Rakhine insurgents of the Arakan Army attack a police post in a village in Rakhine State, killing nine policemen. All of the victims were local recruits from the village.