Insurgents attack Myanmar soldiers in Rakhine, injuring 6

BANGKOK – Six Myanmar soldiers were injured in an insurgent attack in northern Rakhine state, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since the army launched a crackdown in August following militant attacks on police posts, officials said.

The military said in a statement posted on the commander in chief's Facebook page that the attackers were from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the militant group blamed for the attacks on police posts.

More than 20 insurgents using improvised explosives attacked the soldiers' truck, which was coming from Taungpyo township in northern Rakhine on Friday, the government said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Six injured soldiers were taken to a military hospital, border guard police official Sann Oo said by phone Saturday.

In the past, the military has retaliated against Rohingya following such attacks.

A campaign of killings, rape and arson attacks by security forces and Buddhist-aligned mobs has sent more than 850,000 of Myanmar's 1.3 million Rohingya fleeing the country in recent years.

Since Aug. 25 alone, when Myanmar's army began what it called "clearance operations" following the attacks on police posts, more than 650,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

The United Nations and the United States accuse Myanmar's military of human rights violations against Rohingya in Rakhine, including killings, rapes and the burning of homes. The U.N. has condemned the violence as ethnic cleansing.