Fear grips Rakhine as troops pour in

Myanmar's border guard yesterday buried nine officers killed in mysterious raids in the western state of Rakhine, as the military tightened control over a region long scarred by violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

Uniformed officers carried the wooden coffins draped with national flags through rain and thick mud before laying them to rest in a cemetery in the town of Maungdaw.

Troops have poured into the town and surrounding area close to the Bangladesh border since the three coordinated attacks on Sunday by what authorities have described as mobs armed with knives and homemade weapons.

Most people in the area are Muslim Rohingya, a stateless minority whom Buddhist nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh -- even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

At least four people were killed in clashes with soldiers on Monday as troops hunted for the attackers, police said. Locals put the toll at seven and said they were unarmed residents.

"People are frustrated, people are under stress, people are hopeless here," one Rohingya resident from Maungdaw, who asked not be named for his safety, told AFP.