Hopes for a lasting peace had also dimmed. Fighting flared across the north and northeast of the country, not only between government and rebel forces but now among the Ethnic Armed Organizations as well. On secluded hillsides, troops of the Restoration Council of the Shan State battled both the Taang National Liberation Front and their ostensible brethren in the Shan State Army North. In Lashio, near China, fighting between rival militias could be heard on the outskirts of town.
