Just five months after her party took power, Myanmar's Nobel Prize-winning leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is facing international pressure after recent reports that soldiers have been killing, raping and burning homes of the country's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims.

The U.S. State Department joined activist and aid groups raising concerns about new reports of rape and murder, while satellite imagery released Monday by Human Rights Watch shows that at least three villages in the western state of Rakhine have been burned.

Myanmar government officials deny reports of attacks, and presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said Monday that United Nations representatives should visit "and see the actual situation in that region."

The government has long made access to the region a challenge, generally banning foreign aid workers and journalists.