Myanmar Armed Forces Burn Villages, Fire On Fleeing Civilians

At least 18,000 Rohingya have fled the violence and crossed into Bangladesh in less than a week, with hundreds stranded in a no man’s land at the countries’ border, the International Organization for Migration said.

A Rohingya man carries an elderly woman as they pass through mud after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border at Khanjorpara, south of Cox’s Bazar, on Friday.

Myanmar’s military says an operation against an armed group of minority Rohingya Muslims has left almost 400 people dead.

At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes with insurgents, according to the government, majority militants but also members of the security forces and civilians.

New data has shown almost 400 people have died in northwest Myanmar over the last week, in what is the deadliest bout of violence to engulf the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in decades.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha told reporters Thailand is preparing to receive refugees and “send them back when they are ready”. The Myanmar government says its security forces are carrying out clearance operations in northern Rakhine to defend the country against “extremist terrorists”.

Aid workers giving emergency shelter and food in Bangladesh said the refugees were in a “very desperate condition”.

The bodies of 20 Rohingya Muslims were pulled out of a river Thursday along the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh, across which thousands have fled this week.

A video provided to the ABC by a human rights monitor purportedly shows Chut Pyin village burning and in another clip mounds of freshly dug earth – allegedly the graves of those killed.

“We did not have guns so we attacked them like a swarm of hornets shouting “Allahu Akbar” wielding our sticks and machetes”, Omar told AFP of one raid, using a pseudonym to protect his identity. But the Rohingya have desperately been trying to enter Bangladesh by hook or by crook.

He said that Muslim world is saddened while marking Eid al-Adha because of violence in Myanmar, conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and fight against terrorism in Turkey.

ARSA claimed responsibility for the August 21 incident, saying the attack was in retaliation to an army offensive in the region which began following a similar assault in October 2016, in which nine border patrol officers were killed.

Turkey’s president talked to various Muslim heads and called on them to intensify efforts to help Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims.

. “When huge waves tilted the boat, we panicked”, Shah Karim said. The Rohingya, however, track their ancestors many generations back in Myanmar.

The UN has issued a report into allegations of killings, rape and torture by security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, which observers say could amount to crimes against humanity. Bangladesh has insisted it lacks resources to care for them.