Ethnic insurgents kill 4 cops in Myanmar

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - In the latest in a string of attacks, four police officers were injured when an ethnic rebel group attacked security forces in Myanmar’s war-torn Rakhine state, according to media reports on Friday.

Some 70 members of the Arakan Army, a militant group that recruits mainly from the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, attacked a police outpost in Buthidaung township in Rakhine's north on Friday morning, reported online magazine The Irrawaddy, citing a senior military officer.

“The fighting left four police injured and an Arakan Army member died,” military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun was quoted as saying.

He alleged the rebels shot at villages where Rohingya Muslims were in majority and they retreated when security forces arrived.

Police has taken wounded Rohingya villagers to a hospital, he added.

The northern parts of Rakhine state has witnessed armed-fighting on a daily basis since the Arakan Army launched synchronized attacks on police outposts in January, killing 13 officers.

Myanmar government has blocked internet access in eight township of Rakhine and one in adjacent Chin state since mid-June.

With intensified fighting and internet blackout, rights groups voiced concern over the rights violations against civilians in the area.

Amnesty International said in its recent report that both Myanmar security forces and Arakan Army have been committing rights violations against civilians in the area.

Several dozens of ethnic Rakhine men including some elected village administrators were detained and charged for alleged ties to Arakan Army over the past few months.

Earlier this month, authorities declared four top leaders of Arakan Army including its commander-in-chief Maj. Gen. Tun Myat Naing as fugitives after police filed charges against them under the counter-terrorism law.

A few days later, Singapore authorities detained and deported nine Rakhine men including younger brother of Tun Myat Naing to Myanmar on suspicion of fund-raising and other activities in support of Arakan Army in the island state.