Eight people were killed Sunday when fighting broke out in a northern Myanmar town on the border with China, a region long plagued by ethnic rebel insurgencies. The clashes are another blow to civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's hopes of forging a nation-wide peace agreement after years of war in Myanmar's many ethnic minority border regions.
Locals in the town of Muse, a hotbed of smuggling, reported that fighting began in the early morning. "People from (the) border checkpoint are now fleeing to Muse because of heavy fighting," Aye Aye, a resident of the town, told AFP.
In a statement later on Sunday, Suu Kyi's office said eight people were killed in the fighting - one soldier, three police officers, one pro-government militia fighter and three civilians.
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