Rohingya militants behind attack on soldiers

YANGON: A Rohingya militant group claimed responsibility yesterday for an attack on a vehicle carrying Myanmar’s military and police on Friday morning in the country’s restive Rakhine State.

It is the first significant action by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) since co-ordinated deadly attacks on police outposts by the group on August 25 prompted a brutal crackdown that has been labelled “ethnic cleansing” by the UN and sent more than 650000 Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh.

An ARSA statement posted on their Twitter account yesterday and signed by the group’s leader, said it had conducted the attack in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township as “ARSA has left with no option but to combat ‘Burmese state sponsored terrorism’ against the Rohingya population”.

One officer, five soldiers, and a civilian were taken to hospital after the attack using weapons and homemade bombs on a vehicle, according to a post on the Myanmar army commander in chief ’s Facebook page on Friday.

Myanmar had said on Thursday it would begin repatriating Rohingya refugees by January 22. But rights groups have cast doubts over Rohingya returning to Myanmar where the Muslim minority is denied citizenship, freedom of movement, and access to education and healthcare and recently fled en masse bringing with them reports of rape, arson, extrajudicial killings, and torture by Myanmar security forces. – dpa/ African News Agency(ANA)