Four dead as army hunts culprits

Myanmar's army yesterday hunted the attackers who staged deadly raids on border posts, searching homes in Rakhine state for stolen weapons, as police said four people were killed in one clash.

The operations in the western state were focused in and around Maungdaw, a town near the Bangladesh border that was among the targets of Sunday's mysterious attacks which left nine police officers dead.

The vast majority of its residents are Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority reviled as foreign illegal immigrants by many among Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

The unrest has stoked fears of a repeat of 2012, when sectarian violence which ripped through Rakhine left more than 100 people dead and displaced tens of thousands.

The state remains on edge and bitterly divided along religious lines.

"Fighting took place today (Monday) along the border near Maungdaw as the military tracked the culprits," a senior police source in the capital Naypyidaw told AFP on condition of anonymity.