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Myanmar military says death toll in clashes almost 400

Members of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority sit in a boat to cross a canal at Shah Porir Deep, in Teknak, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar have capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said Thursday. Last week, a group of ethnic minority Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Suvra Kanti Das)
Members of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority sit in a boat to cross a canal at Shah Porir Deep, in Teknak, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. Three boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar have capsized in Bangladesh and 26 bodies of women and children have been recovered, officials said Thursday. Last week, a group of ethnic minority Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Myanmar's Rakhine state, triggering fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Suvra Kanti Das)

By Associated Press 1 min read

BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar’s military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority.

The numbers, posted Friday on the Facebook page of the country’s military commander, are a sharp increase over the previously reported toll of just over 100. The statement said all but 29 of the 399 dead were insurgents, whom it described as terrorists.

The statement said there had been 90 armed clashes including an initial 30 attacks by insurgents on Aug. 25, making the combat more extensive than previously announced.

Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh.