“They attempted to exaggerate racial tensions and some frictions between those groups,” said the report from BACS, an unabashedly anti-regime research and advocacy organisation.

The military regime, which has faced defeat after military defeat in Arakan State to the Arakkha Army, is targeting towns and villages, causing civilian casualties to rise steadily in recent months.

The regime blew up a bridge east of Buthidaung Town on Monday in a bid to prevent Arakkha Army (AA) troops from advancing on the town.

One woman was killed and 15 houses were incinerated in an arson attack by junta troops and Muslim conscripts on Waithali Village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township at around 2 a.m. on Tuesday.

The Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) has been finding new recruits in the Kyeintali area of Gwa Township in southern Arakan State, according to residents.

At least 37 junta soldiers were killed and seven others were injured in an artillery shell explosion at a junta hilltop outpost on Badaung Hill near Thandwe Town, Arakan State, on Monday, according to a reliable source.

The two children ranging in age from 10 to 12 were struck dead while they were playing in a creek west of the village. Ko Kyaw Hla Chay, 27, was involved in a separate lightning strike nearby, a local said.

An artillery shell explosion caused a fire at a junta outpost on Badaung Hill near Thandwe Town, Arakan State, at around 1 p.m. on Monday, according to residents.

A local woman was severely injured after stepping on a landmine near a hill in Arakan State’s Taungup Township on Monday morning.

Seven civilians in junta-held townships of Arakan State such as Sittwe, Ann, Taungup and Thandwe were arrested by the regime in the week from April 30 to May 6,

A junta airstrike on Alekyun Village, part of Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, killed four people, including a Buddhist monk, and wounded 5 others on Monday morning, according to local people.

Some 2,000 Muslims took to the streets on Sunday in a protest against the Arakkha Army (AA) in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Town.

A total of 132 of the junta’s border guard force members crossed the Naf River, surrendered to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and sought refuge in Bangladesh during the three-day period, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

The photos were reportedly taken on Saturday. Along with the pictures, the AA chief satirically wrote a selection of lyrics from a military marching song that praises the Myanmar military’s gallantry.

A junta jet fighter dropped bombs on the Mintet Bridge and a jetty north of the village two times, killing a 16-year-old teenage boy and injuring five others ranging in age from 13 to 30.

Three Muslims were reportedly killed and at least 10 others were injured after an artillery shell hit a high school in Buthidaung, Arakan State, on Saturday afternoon.

IDPs who live in makeshift huts on farms and in pastures by the Ponnagyun-Kyauktaw road and near villages were told by farmers that they must move out before the rainy season so that they can grow paddy.

The Arakkha Army (AA) seized the Buthidaung-based No. 15 Military Operations Command and the military’s Light Infantry Battalion Nos. 551 and 565 on May 3, according to a ground source.

The military regime is using locals whom it has forcibly conscripted to fight the Arakkha Army (AA) in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township, according to residents.