''Myanmar’s leaders on Monday vowed to “crush” an insurgency in western Rakhine state by the Arakan Army (AA), demanding that ethnic Rakhines end support for the armed group that killed 13 policeman in coordinated attacks during the country’s Independence Day last week. Zaw Htay, director general of President Win Myint's office, said Myanmar’s de facto leader State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the AA’s attacks during a meeting on national security held with the president, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and other cabinet members. “The president’s office has instructed the military to launch an operation to crush the terrorists,” he told a news conference in the capital Naypyidaw. “The Myanmar government has denounced the AA as a terrorist organization and ordered the military to implement effective counter-insurgency measures against it,” he said. Zaw Htay also said that the AA’s attacks were a “stab in the back” and that political differences divisions should be resolved through discussion. On Friday, Myanmar’s Independence Day, members of the AA used both light and heavy weapons to attack four police outposts in Buthidaung township, killing 13 officers and injuring nine others. Zaw Htay accused the AA of having ties to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Muslim militant group that in August 2017 launched deadly assaults on 30 police outposts and an army base in northern Rakhine state, triggering a brutal military crackdown that killed thousands and drove more than 725,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh...''