Myanmar sees insurgents behind Rohingya killings

In the middle of the night on July 4, more than a dozen masked men, dressed head-to-toe in black, surrounded Abdu Sulwon's home in northwestern Myanmar. His widow says that was the last time she saw him alive.

"I saw a trail of blood where they dragged him away," said Haleda, 40, showing bruises on her body where she says the men beat her with sticks. Her husband's body was found in a ravine near their village, Maung Hna Ma, on Saturday.

She gave her account to reporters during a government-organised trip to the troubled north of Myanmar's Rakhine State, where most people belong to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority.

Officials say Rohingya insurgents are behind this and a slew of killings in the area that has been racked by violence in recent months, with security forces accused of committing atrocities against civilians.

"It is clear that Muslim militants are taking out Muslim villagers who are perceived to be collaborating with the government," Thaung Tun, national security adviser to Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told diplomats in Yangon.

At least 44 civilians have been killed and 27 have been kidnapped or gone missing in northern Rakhine in the past nine months, Thaung Tun said.

It was not possible to independently verify those figures. Insurgents have denied targeting civilians.

But in two cases, including that of Abdu Sulwon, relatives of the victims broadly supported the official version events.

If militants were to blame for at least some of the killings, it would add to evidence the insurgency that flared in October has not been fully rooted out, despite the government announcing the end of its security operation in February.