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. </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> YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar state media say 13 policemen were killed and nine injured in early morning attacks Friday on police outposts in Rakhine state by the insurgent Arakan Army.

The Arakan Army is a rebel group seeking autonomy for Rakhine state from Myanmar's central government. 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 neighboring Bangladesh.

While the Muslim ARSA group has become virtually inactive, the Arakan Army has taken advantage of the area's instability to increase its military activities after training its guerrillas in regions controlled by other insurgent groups, including the Kachin in northern Myanmar. </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> 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> YANGON: Thirteen Myanmar officers were killed in Friday morning's co-ordinated raids on police posts, the army said, in a brazen attack by scores of ethnic Rakhine rebels which adds a dangerous new dimension to conflict in the western state. 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. </s> YANGON, Myanmar — Thirteen policemen were killed and nine injured in early morning attacks Friday on police outposts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state by the insurgent Arakan Army, state media reported.

The Arakan Army is a rebel group seeking autonomy for Rakhine state from Myanmar’s central government. 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.

While the Muslim ARSA group has become virtually inactive, the Arakan Army has taken advantage of the area’s instability to increase its military activities after training its guerrillas in regions controlled by other insurgent groups, including the Kachin in northern Myanmar. There has been an upsurge in sporadic fighting between the Arakan Army and government forces since last month.

The state Myanma News Agency said a total of 250 members of the Arakan Army took part in the attacks on three outposts in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. While such numbers are sometimes inflated by the defenders, the rebel group is generally estimated to have several thousand well-armed and organized uniformed members, in contrast to the ragtag ARSA.

The report said two of the outposts were successfully defended by government forces, but seemed to indicate that the third was temporarily overrun and occupied by the rebels, who were finally driven out with the help of air support.

According to the report, the attackers were able to carry away 40 small weapons, ammunition and a walkie-talkie.

A photo posted on social media by Arakan Army sympathizers claimed to show 14 government security personnel captured by the rebels, along with ammunition and other equipment. </s> YANGON
• Buddhist Rakhine insurgents killed 13 policemen and injured nine in attacks on four police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state yesterday as the country marked Independence Day.

Fighting surged again in the state early last month between government forces and the rebel Arakan Army, which wants more autonomy for the Buddhist ethnic Rakhine minority.

The restive western state is also where a military-led crackdown in 2017 prompted hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims 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 yesterday. Thirteen policemen were killed and nine injured as police were forced to abandon two of the posts, it said, adding that the military was now conducting a "clearance" of the area.

Myanmar military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said earlier that the insurgents had hit police outposts in a rugged region near the border with Bangladesh. "These police posts are there to protect the national races in the area so (Arakan Army rebels) shouldn't attack them," he said, referring to mostly Buddhist ethnic groups in the area who are, unlike Rohingya Muslims, considered Myanmar citizens.

Arakan Army spokesman Khine Thu Kha confirmed the assault and said the rebels later retrieved the bodies of seven "enemies". At least 12 members of the security forces detained in the fighting were later freed.

He said the attacks were in response to a military offensive against the Arakan Army in recent weeks that had also targeted civilians. The military last month announced a four-month halt to fighting in the north and north-east to kick-start peace talks with armed groups seeking ethnic autonomy, but that announcement excluded Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army attacks four police posts in Rakhine State, Myanmar, killing 13 policemen and injuring 9 others.