The military crackdown in Myanmar against Rohingya terrorists came in retaliation for a series of coordinated attacks led by Attaullah Abu Ammar Jununi, who was born in Pakistan and raised in Saudi Arabia.

Last October, the militants struck police posts, killing several officers and triggering a military response that sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing. Then on August 25, a day after a state-appointed commission of inquiry headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan released a report about the earlier bloodshed, the militants struck again.

This time they attacked more than 30 police and army posts.

It was the excuse security forces were looking for. They hit back and hard.

It could be months before the extent of the devastation is clear because the army has blocked access to the affected areas. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, said at least 1,000 civilians were killed. The government claims more than 400 died, the vast majority Rohingya militants. They put the number of civilians killed at 30.

The Myanmar government says 176 of Northern Rakhine's 471 villages have been abandoned, but it has provided few details and no names.

Whether it's the end game for the Rohingya in Myanmar remains to be seen, said Richard Horsey, a political analyst in Yangon. It depends in part on whether arrangements will be made by Bangladesh and Myanmar for their eventual return and the extent of the destruction.

"We are still waiting for a full picture of how many villages are depopulated versus how many were destroyed,'' he said.-AP