09, Jan 2018 | CJP Team

Reuters and Agence France-Presse, in a report published in the Guardian, said that the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) claimed responsibility in a Twitter post for an attack on a Myanmar army vehicle that took place in Rakhine sate on Friday, January 5, 2018, and left three wounded. According to the report the group said in a statement that “Arsa has … no other option but to combat ‘Burmese state-sponsored terrorism’ against the Rohingya population for the purpose of defending, salvaging and protecting the Rohingya community”. The report noted that this was “the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence.” In August, after several insurgent attacks, Myanmar forces launched a “brutal” campaign that prompted more than 650,000 Rohingya to escape to Bangladesh. According to the report, “refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes.”