US: Myanmar military led ‘extreme’ violence against Rohingya

 This file photo taken on October 10, 2017 shows Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar arrive at the Naf river in Whaikyang, Bangladesh border. (AFP) 

UNITED NATIONS — A U.S. government investigation has found that Myanmar’s military targeted Rohingya civilians indiscriminately and often with “extreme brutality” in a coordinated campaign to drive the minority Muslims out of the country.

The hard-hitting State Department report released Monday is based on a survey of more than 1,000 refugees among the hundreds of thousands who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past two years.

The 20-page report does not say whether the abuses constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, as U.N. investigators have surmised.

But the U.S. findings make grim reading and are likely to reinforce calls for the Trump administration to make that determination and strengthen sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation.

Rohingya identified the military as the perpetrator in 84 percent of the killings or injuries they witnessed.