Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has linked "terrorist" attacks in her country's western Rakhine State with international aid workers, prompting fears for their safety.

Amid a dramatic escalation of a 10-month old crisis Ms Suu Kyi's office posted on Facebook that her government is investigating "news" that aid workers were among a group of "Bengali extremist terrorists" who had encircled a village last weekend.

The term "Bengali" is seen as derogatory by many of 1.1 million long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims who have lived in Rakhine for generations.

The post also referred to UN World Food Programme (WFP) parcels being found in a "terrorist" camp and alongside the butchered bodies of what it said were three Hindu adults and three children.

Matthew Smith, executive director and founder of the human rights group Fortify Rights said Ms Suu Kyi's office is implicating aid workers in militancy and suggesting the WFP is feeding militants.

"Her leadership on this has been appallingly irresponsible," he said. 

More than 80,000 children under five are already suffering severe malnutrition in Rakhine because of restrictions on the movements of aid workers.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director, said Ms Suu Kyi's claims without providing evidence will "simply fuel the kind of attacks by extremists in Rakhine that we've seen in the past against international humanitarians from civil society and the UN".

He said the comments raise serious concerns about whether Ms Suu Kyi is "getting the full story about what is really happening in Rakhine".

Partners Relief and Development, an NGO which works in Rakhine to help children also tweeted: "Already difficult for aid workers to do their jobs in Rakhine without propaganda of Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues." 

The United Nations has ordered all non-essential workers to leave the state's conflict areas as thousands of Rohingya Muslims attempt to flee across the border into Bangladesh.

Most international aid workers have been refused permission to travel to Rakhine's north in recent weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis amid reports of widespread starvation of children. 

Australia is one of the largest aid donors to Rakhine.

Officially more than 100 people have killed in the state since last Friday when armed men reportedly from a Rohingya insurgent group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army mounted deadly attacks on 30 police posts and an army base in the towns of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung.  

Clashes have continued as the Myanmar army conducts what it calls "clearance operations," sparking fears of a fresh wave of killings and arson attacks.

The army responded to insurgent attacks on several police posts last October with what the UN said could amount to crimes against humanity, including mass rapes, killings and the torching of houses with children locked inside.

The bloodshed further alienated Rohingya communities and drove support to the insurgents who are believed to include fighters trained in the Middle East, analysts say.

The Myanmar government rejected the UN's findings and refused permission for a UN fact-finding team to enter the country.

The latest violence has stoked fears across south-east Asia that a new wave of Royingya could take to the seas, creating another boat people refugee crisis similar to one in 2014.

The Royal Thai Navy said it has ordered its personnel to prepare for an influx of Rohingya.

Larry Jagan, a well connected analyst in Myanmar, said Ms Suu Kyi, a Noble laureate swept into office in a history election in 2015, has been locked in a battle with Myanmar's military commander Min Aung Hlaing over the increasing militarisation of Rakhine.

Mr Jagan said Ms Suu Kyi has resisted a push by the army and Buddhist politicians for a state of emergency to be declared in Rakhine, although limited curfews have been imposed in some areas.

"But her resistance maybe on the verge of caving in, something human rights activists suggest would give the army carte blanche in Rakhine," he said.

Pope Francis expressed solidarity with Myanmar's Muslim minority in his weekly address in Rome.