12 more people killed in Myanmar's Rakhine state

At least twelve people have been killed in clashes between armed men and troops in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Myanmar's state-run Global New Light reported on Wednesday that four soldiers and one attacker were killed yesterday when hundreds of men wielding pistols and swords assailed troops in Pyaungpit village.

After the incident, troops found seven bodies.

Several Myanmar Cabinet officials and the country's police chief have been having meetings with the Rakhine State chief minister, elders and representatives of local political parties in Sittwe, even as the northern part of their state continues to reel from a deadly assault on border security posts this week.

 

Ministers for information, immigration, security and border affairs, and the State Counsellor's Office are in Sittwe to discuss the recent violence, which saw three security posts attacked by unknown assailants, killing nine police officers, reports the Myanmar Times.

Rakhine community leaders have urged the government to take strong action against the armed attackers - who raided outposts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships - by cooperating with the Tatmadaw and police force.

Human rights groups have called for restraint in the heavily militarised Burmese state.

Tensions between that largely stateless community and Rakhine Buddhists have persisted more than four years after inter-religious violence tore through Rakhine State in 2012, displacing more than 100,000 people.

According to state media, the October 9 attacks began at about 1 a m on a Kyikan Pyin village guard post. A second strike targeted the Kotankauk outpost in neighbouring Rathedaung township, and the last assailants withdrew from the Ngakhuya outpost at about 5.45 a m.

Eight attackers have been killed by security forces and two militants have been captured alive.