BANGKOK, July 24:
Thai and Cambodian soldiers clashed in several areas along their border on Thursday in a major escalation of their conflict that left at least 11 people dead, mostly civilians. The two sides fired small arms, artillery and rockets, and Thailand also called in airstrikes.
Thai villagers could be seen on video fleeing their homes to seek shelter as the clashes began in the morning.
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Fighting was ongoing in at least six areas along the border, Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri said. The trigger for the clashes was a mine explosion along the border on Wednesday that wounded five Thai soldiers and led Bangkok to withdraw its ambassador to Cambodia and expelled Cambodia’s ambassador.
Thailand has also sealed all land border crossings while urging its citizens to leave Cambodia.
The Southeast Asian neighbours have longstanding border disputes that periodically flare along their 800-kilometer (500-mile) frontier and usually result in brief confrontations that sometimes involves exchanges of gunfire.
But relations have deteriorated sharply since a confrontation in May that killed a Cambodian soldier, and Thursday’s clashes were far bigger in scale and intensity than usual.
Each side accuses the other of starting the clashes.
The first clash on Thursday morning happened in an area near the ancient Ta Muen Thom temple along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
A video from the Thai side showed people running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker as explosions sounded.
The Thai army said its forces heard a drone before seeing six armed Cambodian soldiers moving closer to Thai military positions at the border. It said Thai soldiers tried to shout at them to defuse the situation, but the Cambodian side started to open fire.
Cambodia’s Defense Ministry, however, said Thailand deployed a drone first before opening fire, and that Cambodia “acted strictly within the bounds of self-defense, responding to an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops that violated our territorial integrity.”
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote to the current president of the U.N. Security Council asking for an urgent meeting “to stop Thailand’s aggression.” (AP)
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