Naypyitaw: Myanmar's military announced Friday that the Arakan Army, a Buddhist rebel group in Rakhine state, has been classified a terrorist organization after mounting a flurry of recent attacks.

The state earlier was 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.

Military officers said at a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, that leader Aung San Suu Kyi ordered security forces to launch the offensive against the Arakan Army.

The insurgent group, which seeks autonomy from the central government, killed 13 police officers and wounded nine in attacks on January 4. The moves to counter the rebels were decided at a January 7 meeting at Myanmar's presidential offices, the officers said. </s> Buddhist Rakhine fighters have killed seven Myanmar security force members in attacks on four police posts in troubled Rakhine state, spokesmen for the military and the armed group say.

The western state has been torn by violence once again since early December, when fighting intensified between government forces and the Arakan Army, which wants more autonomy for the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic minority.

Rakhine was where a brutal military-led crackdown in 2017 drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims into bordering Bangladesh.

The recent fighting with the Arakan Army had forced 2500 civilians to flee their homes by the end of last year, according to the United Nations.

Arakan Army spokesman Khine Thu Kha told Reuters the group attacked four police posts and later retrieved the corpses of seven "enemies".

The group also detained 12 Myanmar security force members, he said. "We will process them according to international law. We will not harm them," he said.

The attacks were a response to a Myanmar military offensive against the Arakan Army in recent weeks that had also targeted civilians, he said.

The Myanmar military last month announced a four-month halt in fighting in the north and northeast of the country to kick-start peace talks with multiple armed groups fighting for ethnic autonomy, but that announcement excluded Rakhine.

Myanmar state media earlier reported an attack by the same group on Tuesday that seriously injured one policemen.

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.

"The military will continue its operations in the area for security," he said, declining to confirm how many people were killed and captured by the armed group. </s> Myanmar's army has killed 13 rebel fighters in the western Rakhine State, a military spokesman says, as government troops battle to contain a new insurgency in the troubled region.

Fighting between security forces and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group seeking greater autonomy for Rakhine, has forced some 5000 civilians to flee their homes since early December, according to the United Nations.

The violence has brought fresh turmoil to the region, the site of a massive crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017, and represents another setback for the Buddhist-majority country's embattled peace process.

"Between January 5 and 16, 2019, there were eight clashes and five landmine explosions," said Major General Tun Tun Nyi, speaking at a rare press conference in the capital, Naypyitaw.

"Thirteen enemy bodies and three weapons were seized, and some soldiers died and were injured on our side," he said.

He declined to elaborate on the number of government troops killed, saying it was "not necessary" to give the figures.

The Arakan Army could not be immediately reached for comment, but a spokesman outside Myanmar previously told Reuters five bodies seized by the military did not belong to their fighters.

The recent surge of violence began after insurgents killed 13 police and wounded nine in attacks on four police posts on January 4, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, state media reported.

Myanmar's civilian administration last week called on the military to "crush" the rebels, according to a government spokesman.

On Friday, the military said Aung San Suu Kyi, who runs the country as state counsellor, personally ordered the crackdown, stating that the Arakan Army, which recruits from among the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, should face the same treatment as Rohingya insurgents.

The military onslaught against the Rohingya in 2017, which the UN and Western nations have called ethnic cleansing, was preceded by attacks on security forces by fighters calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

The government denies the charge of ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar governments have battled various autonomy-seeking ethnic minority insurgent groups since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948, though some have struck ceasefire agreements.

The United Nations has called for "rapid and unimpeded" aid access to the conflict zone, after the state government last week banned non-governmental organisations and the UN from five townships affected by the fighting. </s> YANGON (Reuters) - 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.

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 Myanmar Ministry of Information said on its Facebook page that nine police, all of them recruits from nearby the village, were confirmed dead and one other was still missing on Sunday.

“Around 60 members of the AA terrorist group attacked using small and large weapons,” the statement said.

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.

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 fifties told Reuters that two policemen stationed at the post survived the attack, which took place shortly after 11 p.m.

“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.”

Myanmar’s military said in a separate statement on Sunday that troops clashed on Saturday with about 200 men from the Arakan Army at a different location, along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. </s> NAYPYITAW (Reuters): Myanmar’s army has killed 13 rebel fighters in the western Rakhine State, a military spokesman said on Friday, as government troops battle to contain a new insurgency in the troubled region.

Fighting between security forces and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group seeking greater autonomy for Rakhine, has forced some 5,000 civilians to flee their homes since early December, according to the United Nations.

The violence has brought fresh turmoil to the region, the site of a massive crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017, and represents another setback for the Buddhist-majority country’s embattled peace process.

“Between Jan. 5 and 16, 2019, there were eight clashes and five landmine explosions,” said Major General Tun Tun Nyi, speaking at a rare press conference in the capital, Naypyitaw.

“Thirteen enemy bodies and three weapons were seized, and some soldiers died and were injured on our side,” he said.

He declined to elaborate on the number of government troops killed, saying it was “not necessary” to give the figures.

The Arakan Army could not be immediately reached for comment, but a spokesman outside Myanmar previously told Reuters five bodies seized by the military did not belong to their fighters.

The recent surge of violence began after insurgents killed 13 police and wounded nine in attacks on four police posts on Jan. 4, as Myanmar celebrated Independence Day, state media reported.

Myanmar’s civilian administration last week called on the military to “crush” the rebels, according to a government spokesman.

On Friday, the military said Aung San Suu Kyi, who runs the country as state counselor, personally ordered the crackdown, stating that the Arakan Army, which recruits from among the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, should face the same treatment as Rohingya insurgents.

The military onslaught against the Rohingya in 2017, which the U.N. and Western nations have called ethnic cleansing, was preceded by attacks on security forces by fighters calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. The government denies the charge of ethnic cleansing.

“During negotiations at the president’s house on January 9, state counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said AA were terrorists and instructed to crack down effectively,” Tun Tun Nyi said.

“If not, others would point out that ARSA was cracked down on because it’s from a different religion and AA was not because it is an ethnic group,” he said.

The conflict is the latest crisis facing Nobel laureate Suu Kyi’s administration, which swept to power in 2015 promising to bring an end to the country’s myriad civil wars.

Myanmar governments have battled various autonomy-seeking ethnic minority insurgent groups since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948, though some have struck ceasefire agreements.

The United Nations has called for “rapid and unimpeded” aid access to the conflict zone, after the state government last week banned non-governmental organizations and the U.N. from five townships affected by the fighting. </s> The Myanmar Army on Sunday claimed that it had found a mass grave of 28 Hindus killed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in Ye Baw Kya village, AFP reported. Those killed included 20 women, six boys under the age of 10, and two men.

“Security members found and dug up 28 dead bodies of Hindus who were cruelly, violently killed by ARSA extremist Bengali terrorists in Rakhine State,” a statement on Myanmar Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s website said. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay confirmed to AFP that the bodies had been discovered. An unidentified police officer in Rakhine claimed the deceased were found “buried with 10-15 bodies in each hole.”

Hindus living in Ye Baw Kya village said that militants entered the village on August 25, killed many people and carried others off into the forest, the report stated. </s> NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Myanmar's military says the Arakan Army, a rebel group in the same region where the government conducted an brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Muslim Rohingya minority, has been classified a terrorist organization after mounting a flurry of recent attacks.

A military public relations team said at a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, that leader Aung San Suu Kyi ordered security forces to launch an offensive against the Arakan Army in Rakhine state.

The insurgent group killed 13 police officers and wounded nine in attacks on Jan. 4.

A separate army offensive that caused more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh was triggered when a group of Rohingya guerrillas staged similar attacks in August 2017.

The Arakan Army represents anti-government elements among the area's Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group. </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> YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — 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…

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — 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 neighboring Bangladesh.

While the Muslim ARSA group has become virtually inactive, the Arakan Army, which is aligned with the state’s Buddhist population, 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 Myanmar 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.

This story has been corrected to fix spelling of Myanmar News Agency.

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Myanmar's military announces that it has killed 13 Arakan Army fighters in a series of eight armed clashes in Rakhine State, spanning from January 5 to 13. In the same press conference, a military spokesman states that the Arakan Army had been newly classified as a terrorist organization.