Tusentals människor flyr striderna i Burma

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Burmese: အာရ်ကန်ရိုဟင်ဂျာ ကယ်တင်ရေးတပ်မတော်; abbreviated ARSA), also known by its former name Harakah al-Yaqin and by its former English name the Faith Movement, is a Rohingya insurgent group active in the jungles of northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. It is led by Ata Ullah, a Rohingya man who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. According to the lead interrogator of ARSA suspects jailed in Sittwe, Police Captain Yan Naing Latt, the group's goal is to create a "democratic Muslim state for the Rohingya". Although there is no firm evidence linking the ARSA to foreign Islamist groups, the Burmese government suspects that the group is involved with and subsidized by foreign Islamists. The Burmese government has also accused the ARSA of murdering 34 to 44 civilians and kidnapping 22 others in reprisal attacks against those the ARSA have perceived as government collaborators. These claims have been denied by the ARSA, who have stated that they "have no links to terrorist groups or foreign Islamists" and that their "only target is the oppressive Burmese regime". On 25 August 2017, with the approval of union government, Central Committee for Counter Terrorism of Myanmar declared ARSA as a terrorist group after attacks on border police in northern Rakhine State. The group however in a statement on 28 August has called government allegations against it as baseless, seeking to present its cause as a defense of Rohingya rights.