1 Thai killed in fresh clashes with Cambodia
BANGKOK—Thailand said at least one civilian was killed amid fresh clashes on Thursday in multiple contested border areas with Cambodia after the nations downgraded their diplomatic relations in a rapidly escalating dispute.
The Thai army said it has launched airstrikes on ground targets in Cambodia. The Cambodian Defense Ministry said Thailand’s army used jets to drop bombs on a road near the ancient Preah Vihear temple.
Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesperson for the Thai Defense Ministry, said three other civilians, including a 5-year-old boy, were seriously injured after Cambodia fired shots into a residential area in Thailand’s Surin province.
Clashes are ongoing in at least six areas along the border, Surasant said. The first clash on Thursday morning happened in an area near the ancient Ta Muen Thom temple along the border of Surin and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Blame game
Both Thailand and Cambodia accused each other of opening fire first.
A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker on Thursday morning as explosions sounded.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said Thailand attacked Cambodian army positions at Ta Muen Thom temple and Ta Krabey temple in Oddar Meanchey and expanded to the area along Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province.
“Cambodia has always maintained a position of peaceful resolution of problems, but in this case, we have no choice but to respond with armed force against armed aggression,” he said.
Downgraded relations
Earlier Thursday, Cambodia said it was downgrading diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelling the Thai ambassador and recalling all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok. That was in response to Thailand closing its northeastern border crossings with Cambodia, withdrawing its ambassador and expelling the Cambodian ambassador on Wednesday to protest a land mine blast that wounded five Thai soldiers.
Relations between the Southeast Asian neighbors have deteriorated sharply since May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in another of the several small patches of land both countries claim as their own territory.
The Thai army said of Thursday’s initial clash that its forces heard an unmanned aerial vehicle before seeing six armed Cambodian soldiers moving closer to Thailand’s station. It said Thai soldiers tried to shout at them to defuse the situation but the Cambodian side started to open fire.
‘In self-defense’
Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said Thailand started the armed clash and Cambodia “acted strictly within the bounds of self-defense.”
