</s>COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Officials say three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar sink in Bangladesh; 26 bodies recovered.</s>COX'S BAZAR: Officials say three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar have capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies have been recovered.Bangladesh border guard commander Lt. Col. S M Ariful Islam said today that the bodies of 15 children and 11 women were recovered from the Naf River at Teknaf in Cox's Bazar.He said at least three boats carrying an unknown number of Rohingya Muslims had capsized yesterday and it was unclear whether anyone was still missing.Last week, Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts in Myanmar, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.The top official in Cox's Bazar, Mohammad Ali Hossain, said the bodies would be buried because no one had claimed them.</s>COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar have capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said Thursday.

Bangladesh border guard commander Lt. Col. S.M. Ariful Islam said at least three boats carrying an unknown number of Rohingya Muslims capsized in the Naf River at Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. He said the bodies of 15 children and 11 women were recovered, and it was unclear whether anyone was still missing.

The top official in Cox’s Bazar, Mohammad Ali Hossain, said the bodies would be buried because no one had claimed them.

Last week, a group of ethnic minority Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

Hundreds of people have been stranded in a no man’s land at the countries’ border, the International Organization for Migration said. Satellite imagery analyzed by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch indicated that many homes in northern Rakhine state were set ablaze.

Most of Myanmar’s estimated 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in northern Rakhine state. They face severe persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, which refuses to recognize them as a legitimate native ethnic minority, leaving them without citizenship and basic rights.

Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012. That set off a surge of anti-Muslim feeling throughout the country.</s>Bangladeshi villagers help two elderly Rohingya women get down from a boat after crossing a canal at Shah Porir Deep, in Teknak, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar have capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said Thursday. Last week, a group of ethnic minority Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said Thursday.

Bangladesh border guard commander Lt. Col. S.M. Ariful Islam said at least three boats carrying an unknown number of Rohingya Muslims sank in the Naf River at Teknaf in Cox's Bazar on Wednesday. He said the bodies of 15 children and 11 women were recovered, and it was unclear whether anyone was still missing.

The top government official in Cox's Bazar, Mohammad Ali Hossain, said the bodies would be buried because no one had claimed them.

Last week, Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

Hundreds of people have been stranded in a no man's land at the countries' border, the International Organization for Migration said. Satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch indicated that many homes in northern Rakhine state were set ablaze.

Most of Myanmar's estimated 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in northern Rakhine. They face severe persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, which denies them citizenship and basic rights.

Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012. That set off a surge of anti-Muslim feeling throughout the country.

Some Buddhists and Hindus have also fled the violence.

More than 400 Hindu residents of Rakhine state crossed into Bangladesh after being attacked by armed men, officials and survivors said.

Main Uddin, a government official in Ukhiya in Cox's Bazar, said the survivors reported that about 86 Hindus had been killed by armed groups in three villages since last Friday.

Survivors said Myanmar soldiers were everywhere and "armed people" were also burning houses and killing people.

Nirajan Rudro, a Hindu who fled to Bangladesh, told The Associated Press that masked men armed with guns, sticks and knives had attacked them and set fire to their houses.

Uddin said 412 Hindus are staying in a Hindu neighborhood near Rohingya camps in Ukhiya.

"They have been sheltered in an abandoned poultry farm there. Bangladeshi Hindus are helping them," he said.</s>COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said Thursday.

Bangladesh border guard commander Lt. Col. S.M. Ariful Islam said at least three boats carrying an unknown number of Rohingya Muslims sank in the Naf River at Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. He said the bodies of 15 children and 11 women were recovered, and it was unclear whether anyone was still missing.

The top government official in Cox’s Bazar, Mohammad Ali Hossain, said the bodies would be buried because no one had claimed them.

Last week, Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

Hundreds of people have been stranded in a no man’s land at the countries’ border, the International Organization for Migration said. Satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch indicated that many homes in northern Rakhine state were set ablaze.

Most of Myanmar’s estimated 1 million Rohingya Muslims live in northern Rakhine. They face severe persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, which denies them citizenship and basic rights.

Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012. That set off a surge of anti-Muslim feeling throughout the country.

Some Buddhists and Hindus have also fled the violence.

More than 400 Hindu residents of Rakhine state crossed into Bangladesh after being attacked by armed men, officials and survivors said.

Main Uddin, a government official in Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar, said the survivors reported that about 86 Hindus had been killed by armed groups in three villages since last Friday.

Survivors said Myanmar soldiers were everywhere and “armed people” were also burning houses and killing people.

Nirajan Rudro, a Hindu who fled to Bangladesh, told The Associated Press that masked men armed with guns, sticks and knives had attacked them and set fire to their houses.

Uddin said 412 Hindus are staying in a Hindu neighborhood near Rohingya camps in Ukhiya.

 “They have been sheltered in an abandoned poultry farm there. Bangladeshi Hindus are helping them,” he said.

 ___

 Alam reported from Dhaka, Bangladesh.</s>Bodies of women and children are recovered after boats carrying Rohingya Muslims sank in the Naf River, officials say.

Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar have capsized in Bangladesh, killing at least 26 people, according to officials.

The bodies of 15 women and 11 children were recovered in Cox's Bazar after the vessels, which carried an unknown number of Rohingya, sank in the Naf River on Wednesday, Bangladesh border guard commander Lieutenant Colonel S.M. Ariful Islam said on Thursday.

He added that it was unclear whether anyone was still missing, according to The Associated Press news agency.

The top official in Cox's Bazar, Mohammad Ali Hossain, said the bodies would be buried because no one had claimed them.

Officials in Bangladesh say growing numbers of Rohingya are trying to cross the Naf river that divides the two countries in rickety boats ill-equipped for the rough waters as they become increasingly desperate to escape the worst outbreak of violence in the restive Rakhine state in years.

READ MORE: Nearly 50,000 Rohingya flee violence in Myanmar

Residents and activists have accused soldiers of shooting indiscriminately at unarmed Rohingya men, women and children and carrying out arson attacks.

However, authorities in Myanmar say close to 100 people have been killed since Friday when armed men, reportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), launched a pre-dawn raid on police outposts in the restive region.

Myanmar authorities say Rohingya "extremist terrorists" have been setting the fires during fighting with government troops, while Rohingya have blamed soldiers who have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Around 27,400 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Friday, three UN sources said, according to Reuters news agency.

The violence comes amid reports of Buddhist vigilantes burning Rohingya villages in Myanmar, Reuters said.

Hundreds of people have been stranded in a no man's land at the countries' border, the International Organization for Migration said.

Satellite imagery analysed by US-based Human Rights Watch indicated that many homes in northern Rakhine state were set ablaze.

READ MORE: \'Fire and destruction\' as Myanmar army targets Rohingya

Most of Myanmar's estimated one million Rohingya Muslims live in northern Rakhine state.

They face severe persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, which refuses to recognise them as a legitimate native ethnic minority, leaving them without citizenship and basic rights.

Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012. That set off a surge of anti-Muslim feeling throughout the country.</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Bangladesh's border guards on Thursday (Aug 31) recovered the bodies of 20 Rohingya women and children whose boat capsized, an official said, as they fled violence in Myanmar amid rising pressure on Bangladesh to shelter thousands of others marooned at its land borders.

Around 18,500 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have managed to slip into Bangladesh since Friday when a series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine state led to a massive military crackdown.

Myanmar has evacuated thousands of Rakhine Buddhists from the area, where ongoing clashes have so far killed at least 117 people, most of them Rohingya insurgents but also security officials.

On Thursday, the bodies of 11 Rohingya children and nine women washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River that separates the two countries as their boat overturned, said Ariful Islam, a commander with Bangladesh's border guards.

The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children had been recovered on Wednesday after their boat was fired on by Myanmar's Border Guard Police, Islam said.

Bangladesh on Wednesday pushed back a total of 366 Rohingya trying to enter the country mainly by small wooden boats, though thousands of others have set up temporary camps along the porous land border between the countries.</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that 18,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled fresh violence in Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh, with "hundreds and hundreds" stranded in no man's land at the countries' border.

Sanjukta Sahany, a spokeswoman for the IOM in Cox's Bazar, on the Bangladesh border with Myanmar, released the latest figures as human rights groups and advocates for the Rohingya say the Myanmar army was retaliating for attacks by Rohingya militants by burning down villages and shooting civilians.

The Myanmar government blames Rohingya insurgents for the violence, including the arson. The official death toll in the violence was 96 as of Sunday, and the actual number is likely to be higher.

A majority of Myanmar's estimated 1 million Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine state, where they have faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country. Last week, Rohingya insurgents launched coordinated attacks against police posts, setting off retaliation by government forces.

Sahany said the Rohingya crisis was not an issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh but of international concern.

Ali Hossain, Cox's Bazar district's top government official, told The Associated Press that their resources were under huge stress after some 87,000 Rohingya entered Bangladesh since October last year and now another 18,000 in just one week.

"I have already informed the government's high-ups about the trouble we are facing here," he said. "This is a very complex situation."

In another development, police said a boat carrying an unknown number of Rohingya capsized in the Naf River, leaving at least four dead. The boat was trying to enter Bangladesh through Shah Porir Island in the Bay of Bengal when it sank, said police official Main Uddin.

He said they recovered four bodies and "most probably" many others were missing.

"Our search is on. We don't know how many were on the boat," he said.

Also Wednesday, Bangladesh's border guards turned back 171 Rohingya after detaining them at different border points over the last two days, said Col. S.M. Ariful islam, a director of the Border Guard Bangladesh.

He said that border guards provided them with food and medicine before pushing them back, but it was not clear what happened to them later.

Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingya as a legitimate native ethnic minority and has denied citizenship and rights to most of them.</s>Around 27,400 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar during the past week and a further 20,000 are marooned in no man’s land between the two countries, three U.N. sources said on Thursday.

Bangladeshi border guards on Thursday recovered the bodies of 20 Rohingya women and children whose boat capsized as they fled Myanmar.

 

 Around 18,500 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and some with bullet wounds, have managed to slip into Bangladesh since Friday, according to the International Organization for Migration.

They fled after a series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state led to a military crackdown.

Myanmar has evacuated thousands of Rakhine Buddhists from the area, where clashes have so far killed at least 117 people, most of them Rohingya insurgents but also security officials, according to the Myanmar government.

The treatment of about 1.1 million Rohingya in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is the biggest challenge facing national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.

On Thursday, the bodies of 11 Rohingya children and nine women washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River that separates the two countries as their boat overturned, said Ariful Islam, a commander with Bangladesh’s border guards.

 

 The bodies of two Rohingya women and two children were recovered on Wednesday after their boat was fired on by Myanmar’s Border Guard Police, Islam said.

In the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, makeshift camps for the displaced set up since similar violence last October were being expanded to accommodate thousands arriving in the past week.

One of those arrivals, Mohammed Rashid, 45, wore a surgical dressing under his eye, which he said was the result of bullet splinters hitting him after the Myanmar army opened fire on a group of Rohingya.

He said about 100 people made their way to the border together, and that he saw explosions and people dying.

“We hid in the forest for two days and then we were stopped at the border, but we got through. We heard that the houses in our village have burned down,” Rashid told Reuters at the camp.

The recent violence marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a similar but much smaller series of Rohingya attacks on security posts prompted a brutal military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries.

Bangladesh on Wednesday pushed back 366 Rohingya trying to enter the country mainly by small wooden boats, though thousands of others have set up temporary camps along the porous land border between the countries, borders guards said.
Twenty-six bodies of women and children are recovered after three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar sink in the Naf River in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar District.