Nearly 400 killed in Burma violence

Almost 400 people died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority, Burma’s military has said.

Both sides exchanged accusations of atrocities as thousands of Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh.

The death toll, posted on the Facebook page of the country’s military commander, is a sharp increase over the previously reported number of just over 100. The statement said all but 29 of the 399 dead were insurgents, whom it described as terrorists.

The statement said there had been 90 armed clashes. The army, responding to the 25 August attacks, launched what it called clearance operations against the insurgents.

Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Burma, said security forces and vigilantes attacked and burned Rohingya villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.