Myanmar ethnic rebels accuse junta of Rakhine village killings

Myanmar junta troops burned houses and killed at least five civilians during a raid on a village in Rakhine state, residents and media said Friday, further fracturing a ceasefire with an ethnic rebel group.

Western Rakhine state has been a spot of relative calm in Myanmar since the coup last year and subsequent unrest that the United Nations says has displaced more than one million people.

Days after it seized power the junta reaffirmed a ceasefire with the Arakan Army (AA), which has for years fought a war for autonomy for the state's ethnic Rakhine population.

Junta troops arrived in Sin Inn Gyi village on Thursday after AA fighters ambushed junta vehicles on a nearby highway that connects the remote state to Yangon, residents said.

"I heard many explosions and shooting... They [the junta] were shooting with helicopters as well," one villager who fled told AFP, asking not to use a name due to fear of reprisals.

From a nearby village, they said they saw "about five or six buildings burning" into the night.

Returning on Friday after troops had left, the villager said they saw five dead men, some of whom appeared to have been shot and others stabbed.

"I was so scared after seeing their bodies... It's impossible for us to stay there."

Another resident who fled, and who did not want to give a name, told AFP they had heard that nine villagers among those who had stayed behind had been killed.

Local media reported at least seven villagers had been killed.

Pictures purporting to capture the aftermath showed piles of corrugated steel sheets lying on ash and several bodies on the ground.

AFP digital verification reporters said they had not appeared online before.

AA spokesman Khaing Thu Kha told AFP that nine, mostly elderly residents of the village had been killed by junta troops who raided the village after AA fighters "detained" a military vehicle.

"We are going to take necessary actions to retaliate," he said.

A junta spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Junta troops have been accused of killing and burning sprees in central, northern and eastern Myanmar as they struggle to crush opposition to the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year.

The junta has previously accused "terrorist" anti-coup fighters of setting the fires.

Small, sporadic clashes between the military and the AA have been escalating since last November, with both sides accusing the other of infringing on territory and harassing supporters.

Clashes between the AA and the military in 2019 displaced more than 200,000 people across the state of around one million people.