At least five Police officers have been killed in coordinated attacks by armed Rohingya guerrillas at Maung Taw in northern Rakhine state, officials said.
A statement by the State Counsellor’s information office said the attacks started at 1am.
They come within hours after former UN secretary general Kofi Annan released his Rakhine Commission findings to the State Counsellor and made it public in a press conference in Yangon on Thursday.
24 police posts in as many villages were encircled and attacked by guerillas and villagers armed with sharp weapons, the statement said.
Five policemen were killed in the attack. Seven attackers were also killed, according to the statement.
However, it was not yet clear whether those attackers were armed guerrillas or villagers or both.
The statement said around 150 attackers also tried to storm an army camp at Khamara (552) at 3am but were beaten back.
This appears to be the biggest and most coordinated Rohingya rebel attack since security forces started special operations in the Mayu mountains of northern Rakhine.
Analysts believe the attacks were perhaps designed to divert the focus of the operations and force security forces into a heavy static deployment that would draw away numbers from offensive operations.
No Rohingya rebel group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but intelligence suspects the involvement of the fledgling Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
