The conflict between neighbours Thailand and Cambodia escalated on Thursday with Cambodia firing rockets and artillery shells into Thailand and the Thai military scrambling F-16 jets to carry out air strikes.
At least nine civilians, including a child, were allegedly killed as weeks of tension over a border dispute escalated into clashes on Thursday, Reuters reported.
The fighting erupted near two temples on the border between the Thai province of Surin and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey. Both sides blamed the other for initiating the conflict.
What we know so far about Thailand-Cambodia conflict:
What’s the dispute?
Thailand and Cambodia are locked in a bitter spat over an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of both countries and Laos meet, and which is home to several ancient temples.
The squabble has dragged on for decades, flaring into bloody military clashes more than 15 years ago and again in May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a firefight.
For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817-km (508-mile) land border, which has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery in 2011.
Tensions were reignited in May following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, which escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and now has triggered armed clashes.
What led to the recent conflict?
The violence on Thursday was reported hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its own envoy in protest after five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by a landmine.
A second Thai soldier in the space of a week had lost a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently in the disputed area.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said an investigation by the Thai military found evidence that Cambodia had laid new landmines in the disputed border area — a claim denied by Phnom Penh.
On Thursday morning, Cambodia announced it was downgrading ties to “the lowest level”, pulling out all but one of its diplomats and expelling their Thai equivalents from Phnom Penh.
Recent weeks have seen a series of tit-for-tat swipes by both sides, with Thailand restricting border crossings and Cambodia halting certain imports.
What’s happening right now? Key points to know
1. The Thai military said the clashes began around 7:35 am (0035 GMT) when a unit guarding Ta Muen temple heard a Cambodian drone overhead. “Later, six armed Cambodian soldiers, including one carrying a rocket-propelled grenade, approached a barbed-wired fence in front of the Thai post,” the army said.
Thai soldiers shouted to warn them, the army said, but around 8:20 am, Cambodian forces opened fire toward the eastern side of the temple, about 200 metres from the Thai base.
2. However, Cambodia blamed Thailand for violating its “territorial integrity”. Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Thailand’s air strikes were “unprovoked” and called on its neighbour to withdraw its forces and “refrain from any further provocative actions that could escalate the situation”.
Defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata said, “The Thai military violated the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Cambodia by launching an armed assault on Cambodian forces stationed to defend the nation’s sovereign territory.”
“In response, the Cambodian armed forces exercised their legitimate right to self-defence, in full accordance with international law, to repel the Thai incursion and protect Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement added.
3. Thailand’s foreign ministry said Cambodian troops fired “heavy artillery” on a Thai military base on Thursday morning and also targeted civilian areas including a hospital, leading to civilian casualties.
The Thai prime minister’s office alleged that a Cambodian artillery shell hit a house over the border, killing one civilian and wounding three others, including a five-year-old child, AFP reported.
Thailand’s government spokesman, meanwhile, accused Cambodia of being “inhumane, brutal and war-hungry”.
4. A Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia on Thursday, both sides said. Of the six F-16 fighter jets that Thailand readied to deploy along the disputed border, one of the aircraft fired into Cambodia and destroyed a military target, the Thai army said.
5. Cambodia’s defence ministry said the jets dropped two bombs on a road, and that it “strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.
6. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address what his foreign ministry labelled “unprovoked military aggression”.
7. Bangkok’s foreign ministry said all border crossings had been shut and nearby residents evacuated.
The fallout
The border row also kicked off a domestic political crisis in Thailand, where prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been suspended from office pending an ethics probe over her conduct.
A diplomatic call between Paetongtarn and Hun Sen, Cambodia’s former longtime ruler and father of Hun Manet, was leaked from the Cambodian side, sparking a judicial investigation.
Last week, Hun Manet announced that Cambodia would start conscripting civilians next year, activating a long-dormant mandatory draft law.