Myanmar says at least 71 people have been killed in attacks on police posts in the western state of Rakhine.

At least 59 Rohingya Muslims and 12 policemen were killed overnight on Thursday in the restive state, where the military is accused of committing atrocities against the persecuted Rohingya Muslim community.

A government statement said militants staged coordinated attacks on at least 24 police posts, while some 150 men were also attempting to break into a military base.

"The extremist Bengali insurgents attacked a police station in Maungdaw region in northern Rakhine state with a handmade bomb explosive,” said the statement.

Using the derogatory term "Bengali," the government refers to the Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s government brands the 1.1 million-strong Rohingya population in the country as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims, however, claim roots in the region that go back centuries.

Considered by the UN as the “most persecuted minority group in the world,” the Rohingya have been under a military siege in Rakhine since October 2016. The government used a militant attack on border guards back then as the pretext to enforce the blockade.

There have been numerous eyewitness accounts of summary executions, rapes, and arson attacks by the military since the crackdown began.

The crackdown has resulted in some 87,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing the Buddhist-majority country to Bangladesh since last year.

Over 400,000 Rohingya refugees are already living in overcrowded squalid camps and makeshift settlements in the bordering district of Cox's Bazar.

Bangladesh has recently stopped thousands of Rohingyas on the border. Only this week, it turned back a boat carrying dozens of refugees, including children.

Bangladesh says it is no longer capable of hosting the refugees.</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - About 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state had been halted at the Naf river on the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday.

The death toll from attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 89, including 77 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, Myanmar army said.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since a similar offensive in October that prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

At least one fresh attack had taken place on Saturday, according to a Myanmar security source.

National leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned the early morning raids - in which Rohingya insurgents wielding guns, sticks and home-made bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base - while the government evacuated staff and villagers to safety.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as the biggest challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's 16-month old administration. Suu Kyi has been accused of not speaking out for the persecuted minority and of defending the army's brutal counter-offensive after the October attacks.

In a sign that both sides were bracing for more violence, about 1,000 Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and got stranded there, a Bangladeshi border guard and Mohammad Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district near the Myanmar border, told Reuters.

"Many Rohingya people are trying to enter the country, but we have a zero tolerance policy - no one will be allowed," said Hossain.

Bangladeshi officials regularly advocate a hardline approach to refugees in official interviews, but typically end up letting the refugees through. There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 87,000 have arrived since October.

The Myanmar army operation last year was heavily criticised amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson, sparking allegations by the United Nations of crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.

Observers worry that the attacks will spark an even more aggressive army response than last year and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines.

"25 Aug attack in N Rakine utmost concern! Violence must stop in Rakhine. Heartfelt sorrow 4 deaths. Beg all sides 2 take restraint! Everyone!" said Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar on Twitter.

In a statement late on Friday, Suu Kyi "strongly condemned" "brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State."

"I would like to commend the members of the police and security forces who have acted with great courage in the face of many challenges," she added.

The government evacuated officials from the home ministry, teachers as well as hundreds of non-Rohingya villagers to army bases and main police stations, the government said.

"The government made six evacuation checkpoints. Some will be evacuated by helicopters and some will be taken out by the security forces," a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters.

The source said the army and police were battling the militants, who staged at least one fresh attack on security forces and destroyed a bridge on Saturday morning.

"They are fighting now, the situation will be tense again today, although there was no fighting at night," said the source. (Additional reporting by Wa Lone in YANGON and Krishna N. Das in NEW DELHI; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Lincoln Feast)</s>Dozens have died since Friday as scores of men purportedly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) ambushed Myanmar police posts with knives, guns and homemade explosives</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON: About 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar had been halted at the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state.

The death toll from attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 89, including 77 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, Myanmar's army said.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since a similar offensive last October that prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

At least one fresh attack had taken place on Saturday, according to a Myanmar security source.

National leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned Friday's early morning raids - in which Rohingya insurgents wielding guns, sticks and home-made bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base - while the government evacuated staff and villagers to safety.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as the biggest challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's 16-month old administration.

Suu Kyi has been accused of not speaking out for the persecuted minority and of defending the army's brutal counter-offensive after the October attacks.

In a sign that both sides were bracing for more violence, about 1,000 Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and got stranded there, a Bangladeshi border guard and Mohammad Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district near the Myanmar border, told Reuters.

"Many Rohingya people are trying to enter the country, but we have a zero tolerance policy - no one will be allowed," said Hossain.

Bangladeshi officials regularly advocate a hardline approach to refugees in official interviews, but typically end up letting the refugees through. There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 87,000 have arrived since October.

The Myanmar army operation last year was heavily criticised internationally amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson, sparking allegations by the United Nations of crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.

Observers worry that the latest attacks will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines.

"25 Aug attack in N Rakine utmost concern! Violence must stop in Rakhine. Heartfelt sorrow 4 deaths. Beg all sides 2 take restraint! Everyone!" said Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar on Twitter.

In a statement late on Friday, Suu Kyi "strongly condemned" "brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State."

"I would like to commend the members of the police and security forces who have acted with great courage in the face of many challenges," she added.

The government said it had evacuated officials, teachers and hundreds of non-Rohingya villagers to army bases and main police stations.

"Some will be evacuated by helicopters and some will be taken out by the security forces," a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters.

Military sources and residents told Reuters the fiercest fighting took place only a few kilometres east and south of the centre of the major town of Maungdaw in the hamlets of Myo Thu Gyi and Nyaung Chaung.

A resident in Maungdaw contacted by Reuters by telephone said he heard what sounded like shelling in the direction of the Myo Thu Gyi.

"A lot of police and army vehicles went to the area as the fighting erupted between the security forces and Muslim groups," said the source.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army.

Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks. President Htin Kyaw's office and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing also "discussed the issues of applying more security forces and using helicopters", the government said.

Kori Mullah, a Rohingya resident from Maungdaw, said his family did not dare to go out of the house and the town was tense and quiet.

"The roads are empty. Schools, shops and markets are all closed down. People don't go out," he said.

Rakhine Buddhist villagers from Taman Thar village, some 50 km (30 miles) north of Maungdaw, said they spent Friday night at a monastery with 500 non-Muslim residents of the area.

"The military patrol arrived near our village, so there were no clashes at night," Maung Thein Hla, one of the fleeing residents, told Reuters by telephone.

"We felt better about our security because the army was near us."</s>YANGON (REUTERS) - About 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing the escalating violence in Myanmar have been halted at the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday (Aug 26), as fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar's north-western Rakhine state.

The death toll from attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 89, comprising 77 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, Myanmar's army said.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since a similar offensive last October that prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human-rights abuses.

At least one fresh attack had taken place on Saturday, according to a Myanmar security source.

National leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned Friday's early morning raids - in which Rohingya insurgents wielding guns, sticks and home-made bombs attacked 30 police stations and an army base - while the government evacuated staff and villagers to safety.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as the biggest challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's 16-month-old administration.

Ms Suu Kyi has been accused of not speaking out for the persecuted minority and of defending the army's brutal counter-offensive after the October attacks.

In a sign that both sides were bracing themselves for more violence, about 1,000 Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and got stranded there, Mr Mohammad Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district near the Myanmar border, told Reuters.

"Many Rohingya people are trying to enter the country, but we have a zero-tolerance policy - no one will be allowed," said Mr Hossain.

There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 87,000 have arrived since October.

Observers worry that the latest attacks will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines.

The government said it had evacuated officials, teachers and hundreds of non-Rohingya villagers to army bases and main police stations. "Some will be evacuated by helicopter and some will be taken out by the security forces," a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters.

Military sources and residents told Reuters the fiercest fighting took place only a few kilometres off the major town of Maungdaw in the hamlets of Myo Thu Gyi and Nyaung Chaung.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa), which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army.

Myanmar declared Arsa, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks. President Htin Kyaw's office and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing also "discussed the issues of applying more security forces and using helicopters", the government said.</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims were trying to cross from Myanmar into Bangladesh on Saturday, following an attack by Rohingya militants in western Myanmar that left 89 people dead in a dramatic escalation of communal violence that has plagued the region.

The militants launched the attacks overnight Thursday on more than two dozen police and border outposts. The office of Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said military and border police responded to the attacks — which left 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya dead — by launching "clearance operations."

Advocates for the Rohingya on social media have been reporting many army raids on villages, including killings and the burning down of homes. They have also posted videos they say show villagers who have fled to the mountains for safety.

The accounts, from activists who have given generally reliable information in the past, are impossible to independently verify because the government bars journalists and other outsiders from entering the region without permission.

Mohammad Nur, a Rohingya leader at an unregistered camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, told The Associated Press by phone that he had heard that some 100,000 Rohingya had gathered along the border to try to enter Bangladesh, but the number could not be confirmed.

"He was crying, he was alone," he said. "I asked him where are your parents, and he was just crying. I took him and brought him with me."

Khatun told The Associated Press that she left behind her entire family along the border in Myanmar after she lost track of her whereabouts on Friday night. She said that she and hundreds of others started walking to reach the border after her village was attacked by Myanmar soldiers.

"I have left everything behind," Khatun said. "My husband died 11 years ago, and now I have nobody. I have lost my entire family this time."

She said many others were still waiting to enter Bangladesh. "If they are not allowed in they will die," she said.

Farid Alam, a Bangladeshi who lives in Amtoli village, through which many Rohingya have crossed the border, told the AP on Saturday that over last two days, at least 2,000 Rohingya had entered Bangladesh. "The patrol in my area is not that tight often, especially during changing of shifts," he said.

Ali Hossain, a top government official in Cox's Bazar, said Friday that authorities were on alert in the wake of the new violence in Myanmar.

"That's the order we have gotten from the Ministry of Home Affairs," Hossain said. "We have done enough and sheltered hundreds of thousands despite our limited resources."

The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration said recently that around 87,000 Rohingya had crossed the border and entered Bangladesh since last October, when a new string of violence broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

A militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, took responsibility for the Thursday night attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in of Rohingya communities that had been brutalized by government forces.</s>The state is bisected by religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The office of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said 12 security officials had been killed alongside 77 militants – the highest declared single day toll since fighting broke out last year.

Yesterday’s fighting exploded around Rathedaung township which has seen a heavy build-up of Myanmar troops in recent weeks, with reports filtering out of killings by shadowy groups, army-blockaded villages and abuses.

Some 20 police posts came under attack in the early hours of yesterday by an estimated 150 insurgents, some carrying guns and using home-made explosives, Myanmar’s military said.

“The military and police members are fighting back together against extremist Bengali terrorists,” Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement on Facebook, using the state’s description for Rohingya militants.

One resident in Maungdaw, the main town in northern Rakhine, said gunfire could be heard throughout the night.

“We are still hearing gunshots now, we dare not to go out from our house,” the resident said by phone, asking not to be named.

Footage obtained by AFP showed smoke rising from Zedipyin village in Rathedaung township where fighting was ongoing yesterday.

Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.

But a previously unknown militant group emerged as a force last October under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which claims to be leading an insurgency based in the remote May Yu mountain range bordering Bangladesh.

A Twitter account (@ARSA_Official) which purports to represent the group confirmed its fighters were engaging Myanmar’s military in the area and accused the soldiers of carrying out atrocities in recent weeks.

Myanmar says the group is headed by Rohingya jihadists who were trained abroad but it is unclear how large the network is.

Suu Kyi’s office posted pictures of weapons that had been taken from militants, mainly home-made bombs and rudimentary knives and clubs.

Ye4sterday’s violence pushed new waves of Rohingya to flee towards Bangladesh.

But border guards there said they would not be allowed to cross.

“More than a thousand of Rohingya women along with children and cattle have gathered near the land border between Myanmar and Bangladesh since this morning,” Manjurul Hasan Khan, commander of Ukhiya town’s border guards, said.

The flare-up came just hours after former UN chief Kofi Annan released a milestone report detailing conditions inside Rakhine and offering ways to heal the festering sectarian tensions there.

Commissioned by Myanmar’s own government, it urged the scrapping of restrictions of movement and citizenship imposed on the roughly one million-strong Rohingya community in Rakhine.

In a statement Annan said he was “gravely concerned” by the latest outbreak of fighting.

“The alleged scale and gravity of these attacks mark a worrying escalation of violence,” he said.

The UN’s top official in Myanmar, Renata Lok-Dessallien, called on all sides to “refrain from violence, protect civilians (and) restore law and order”.

The wedge of Rakhine closest to Bangladesh has been in lockdown since October 2016.

Deadly attacks by the militants on border police sparked a military response that left scores dead and forced some 87,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.

The UN believes the military crackdown may have amounted to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

But the army and Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government vehemently deny allegations of widespread abuses, including rapes and murders.

They have so far refused to grant visas to UN investigators tasked with probing the allegations.

Amnesty International said there were now fears over how Myanmar’s notoriously abusive security forces might respond.

“This cannot lead to (a) repeat of last year’s vicious military reprisals responding to a similar attack, when security forces tortured, killed and raped Rohingya people and burned down whole villages,” said Amnesty’s regional campaigns director Josef Benedict.

Myanmar security forces have conducted sporadic operations to flush out suspected militants this year, often resulting in casualties among Rohingya villagers.

They have spoken of their fear at being trapped in between security forces and the militants, who are accused of conducting a shadowy assassination campaign against those perceived as collaborators with the state.

Access to the area is severely restricted and verifying information is difficult.

Activists and supporters on both sides of the sectarian divide have a history of posting false images and footage online.</s>COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh/YANGON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - About 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing escalating violence in Myanmar had been halted at the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said on Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state.

The death toll from attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 89, including 77 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, Myanmar's army said.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since a similar offensive last October that prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

At least one fresh attack had taken place on Saturday, according to a Myanmar security source.

National leader Aung San Suu Kyi condemned Friday's early morning raids - in which Rohingya insurgents wielding guns, sticks and home-made bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base - while the government evacuated staff and villagers to safety.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as the biggest challenge for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's 16-month old administration.

Suu Kyi has been accused of not speaking out for the persecuted minority and of defending the army's brutal counter-offensive after the October attacks.

In a sign that both sides were bracing for more violence, about 1,000 Rohingya arrived at the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh and got stranded there, a Bangladeshi border guard and Mohammad Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district near the Myanmar border, told Reuters.

"Many Rohingya people are trying to enter the country, but we have a zero tolerance policy - no one will be allowed," said Hossain.

Bangladeshi officials regularly advocate a hardline approach to refugees in official interviews, but typically end up letting the refugees through. There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 87,000 have arrived since October.

The Myanmar army operation last year was heavily criticised internationally amid reports of civilian killings, rape and arson, sparking allegations by the United Nations of crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi is blocking U.N.-mandated probe into the allegations.

Observers worry that the latest attacks will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines.

"25 Aug attack in N Rakine utmost concern! Violence must stop in Rakhine. Heartfelt sorrow 4 deaths. Beg all sides 2 take restraint! Everyone!" said Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar on Twitter.

In a statement late on Friday, Suu Kyi "strongly condemned" "brutal attacks by terrorists on security forces in Rakhine State."

"I would like to commend the members of the police and security forces who have acted with great courage in the face of many challenges," she added.

The government said it had evacuated officials, teachers and hundreds of non-Rohingya villagers to army bases and main police stations.

"Some will be evacuated by helicopters and some will be taken out by the security forces," a military source based in Rakhine told Reuters.

Military sources and residents told Reuters the fiercest fighting took place only a few kilometres east and south of the centre of the major town of Maungdaw in the hamlets of Myo Thu Gyi and Nyaung Chaung.

A resident in Maungdaw contacted by Reuters by telephone said he heard what sounded like shelling in the direction of the Myo Thu Gyi.

"A lot of police and army vehicles went to the area as the fighting erupted between the security forces and Muslim groups," said the source.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) which instigated the October attacks claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army.

Myanmar declared ARSA, previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, a terrorist organisation in the wake of the attacks. President Htin Kyaw's office and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing also "discussed the issues of applying more security forces and using helicopters", the government said.

Kori Mullah, a Rohingya resident from Maungdaw, said his family did not dare to go out of the house and the town was tense and quiet.

"The roads are empty. Schools, shops and markets are all closed down. People don't go out," he said.

Rakhine Buddhist villagers from Taman Thar village, some 50 km (30 miles) north of Maungdaw, said they spent Friday night at a monastery with 500 non-Muslim residents of the area.

"The military patrol arrived near our village, so there were no clashes at night," Maung Thein Hla, one of the fleeing residents, told Reuters by telephone.

"We felt better about our security because the army was near us." (Additional reporting by Wa Lone in YANGON and Krishna N. Das in NEW DELHI; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Lincoln Feast)</s>YANGON
• Myanmar troops opened fire on hundreds of fleeing Rohingya villagers with mortar shells and machine guns yesterday, said an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene and Bangladesh border guards.

The firing occurred at Ghumdhum border post, where the villagers have been stranded since Friday after fresh violence broke out in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.

"They have fired on civilians, mostly women and children, hiding in the hills near the (border) zero line," Border Guard Bangladesh station chief Manzurul Hassan told AFP. "They fired machine guns and mortar shells suddenly, targeting the civilians."

It was not immediately clear if there were any injuries.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar are trying to cross the border with Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said yesterday. Denied entry by the authorities, many were left without shelter in no-man's land on the border, or forced to return to villages, trapping them between militants and security forces.

The death toll from widespread attacks staged by Rohingya insurgents on Friday has climbed to 96, including nearly 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said, prompting it to evacuate staff and villagers from some areas.

The attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since last October, when a similar offensive prompted a major military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.

The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in mainly Buddhist Myanmar has emerged as the biggest challenge for national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Late on Friday, she condemned the morning raids in which insurgents wielding guns, sticks and homemade bombs assaulted 30 police stations and an army base.

The government said there had been several large clashes involving hundreds of Rohingya across north-western Rakhine yesterday. The fiercest fighting took place on the outskirts of the major town of Maungdaw, near the Alodaw Pyae Buddhist monastery.

Maungdaw resident Nay Myo Lin, 27, told Reuters by telephone that security forces opened fire on scores of what appeared to be Muslim men with guns near the monastery.

The government said in a statement: "Extremist Bengali terrorists are attacking using man-made mines... swords, sticks, guns. They also killed Islamic religious people of their own faith who were village administrators."

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which instigated the October attacks, has claimed responsibility for the offensive, presenting it as a defence against the Myanmar army.</s>A Border Guard Police officer stands at a police post that was previously attacked by a Muslim terrorist group in Kyee Kan Pyin Buthidaung.

YANGON, Myanmar — An attack by ethnic Rohingya militants in western Myanmar left 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya Muslims dead in a dramatic escalation of communal violence that has plagued the region, as the United States urged authorities to avoid a response that would inflame the tensions.

The office of the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said Friday that military and border police responded to the attacks by launching "clearance operations."

Police fought off groups of as many as 100 Rohingya attackers armed with guns, machetes and homemade grenades. The captured weapons were shown in photos posted online by the government.

A witness in Maungdaw township in Rakhine state, contacted by phone, said soldiers entered her village at about 10 a.m. Friday, burned homes and property, and shot dead at least 10 people.

The witness, who asked to be identified by her nickname, Emmar, because of fear of retribution, said villagers fled in many directions but mostly to a nearby mountain range. She said gunshots and explosions could be heard and smoke could still be seen Friday evening.

A militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, took responsibility for the Thursday night attacks on more than 25 locations, saying they were in defense of Rohingya communities that had been brutalized by government forces. It issued its statement on Twitter on an account deemed legitimate by advocates of Rohingya rights.

Suu Kyi called the attacks "a calculated attempt to undermine the efforts of those seeking to build peace and harmony in Rakhine state."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in Washington that as security forces act to prevent further violence and bring the perpetrators to justice, they should respect the rule of law and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

She said the attacks underscored the importance of the government implementing recommendations of a commission chaired by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, which published its final report on Thursday recommending that the government act quickly to improve economic development and social justice in Rakhine state to resolve violence between Buddhists and the Rohingya.

Suu Kyi's office said on its Facebook page that the attacks were intended to coincide with the release of Annan's report.

The clashes were deadlier than an attack by the militants on three border posts last October that killed nine policemen and set off months of brutal counterinsurgency operations by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya communities in Rakhine state. Human rights groups accused the army of carrying out massive human rights abuses including killing, rape and burning down more than 1,000 homes and other buildings.

The army's abuses fueled further resentment toward the government among the Muslim Rohingya, most of whom are considered by Myanmar's Buddhist majority to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and its rights. ARSA took advantage of the resentment by stepping up recruitment of members.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

According to the United Nations, more than 80,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since last October's clashes.

Annan also condemned the new attacks, saying "no cause can justify such brutality and senseless killing" and urging the government to exercise restraint and "ensure that innocent civilians are not harmed."
Dozens of Rohingya Muslims fleeing renewed violence in Rakhine State are detained by Bangladeshi and Burmese authorities after they attempt to cross the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Many were en route to Kutupalong Refugee Camp, a refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh, mostly inhabited by Rohingya refugees.