YANGON: Buddhist Rakhine fighters killed seven Myanmar security forces in attacks on four police posts in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state on Friday (Jan 4) as the country marked Independence Day, spokesmen for the military and the armed group said. Militants from the Arakan Army (AA), who are seeeking greater autonomy for their Buddhist ethnic group, swarmed four police stations in northern Rakhine state early on Friday "killing 13 police and wounding nine others," according to a statement released late Friday by the army chief's office. It has no links with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a Muslim insurgent group whose similar attacks in 2017 sparked a bloody government counterinsurgency campaign against the area’s Muslim Rohingya minority, driving more than 700,000 to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. The separate conflict between the military and Arakan Army rebels forced 2,500 civilians from their homes by the end of last year, according to the United Nations. The official Myanmar News Agency said four police posts in the Buthidaung area in northern Rakhine came under attack from hundreds of Arakan Army fighters after daybreak on Friday. Myanmar military spokesman Zaw Min Tun told Reuters security forces were responding to Friday's attacks, which targeted police posts in the northern parts of Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships, a rugged area near the border with Bangladesh. Khine Thu Kha, spokesman for the rebels, told AFP news agency, that AA fighters retrieved seven corpses of "enemies" and took 14 members of the security forces captive during the raids. He told Reuters later that the rebels had freed at least 12 members of the security forces it detained in the fighting. The attacks, he added, came in response to a Myanmar military offensive against the Arakan Army in recent weeks that had also targeted civilians. The Myanmar military last month announced a four-month halt to fighting in the north and northeast of the country to kick-start peace talks with multiple armed groups seeking ethnic autonomy, but that announcement excluded Rakhine state. Today is not our Independence Day," he said, referring to the Rakhine who he said faced discrimination in Myanmar.
The Arakan Army attacks four police posts in Rakhine State, Myanmar, killing 13 policemen and injuring 9 others.