Yangon, Myanmar: At least two policemen were killed in coordinated attacks by an unknown group on posts along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh early on Sunday morning, an official and police said.

The assaults hit three border posts around 1:30am (1800 GMT Saturday) near Maungdaw in Rakhine, an impoverished state on Myanmar’s western flank simmering with sectarian tensions between Buddhists and Muslims.

‘According to initial information, two police officers were killed, two others were injured and six police are missing,’ Tin Maung Swe, a senior official within Rakhine’s state government told AFP.

A police official in the capital Naypyidaw confirmed three places were attacked but declined to give further details.

A second police source also confirmed the attacks, adding as many as eight policemen might have been killed, as well as some of the attackers.

A number of weapons were also seized by the assailants from the border posts, that officer added.

Rakhine has been effectively split on religious grounds since bouts of communal violence tore through the state in 2012, killing scores and forcing tens of thousands to flee.

The Muslim Rohingya are largely confined to camps and slapped with restrictions that rights groups have likened to apartheid.