[Tee tiong huat]

Fatal clashes have broken out between Thai and Cambodian troops along a disputed section of their border with both countries accusing the other of provocation, after weeks of simmering tensions between the south-east-Asian neighbours. At least 2 Thai civilians were killed & 2 others injured by shelling from Cambodian side on Thursday, according to a district official, while Thai army said it had launched airstrikes on military targets in Cambodia.

Thailand’s military said it had closed all border checkpoints and that fighting was taking place at six different locations. It comes after clashes broke out near the Khmer Hindu temple, Ta Muen Thom, on Thursday morning. The Thai military said Cambodian troops had opened fire near the temple, and deployed a surveillance drone before sending in troops with heavy weapons, including rocket launchers

“Cambodian forces acted strictly within the bounds of self-defence, responding to an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops that violated our territorial integrity,” the ministry said in a statement. In a later statement it condemned what it called reckless and brutal Thai military aggression.

Thai said an F-16 fighter jet had fired into Cambodia & destroyed a military target. They said several more jets were ready to be deployed. “We used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon told reporters.
Cambodia’s influential former premier Hun Sen – father of current prime minister Hun Manet – said 2 Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from Thailand’s military. A statement posted online, Hun Manet said “Cambodia has always taken a stand to solve problems peacefully, but in this case we have no choice but to respond with armed forces against armed aggression.”Clashes are the latest in a history of conflict along 817km border that Cambodia & Thai
share, sections of which are subject to overlapping territorial claims due to disagreements about colonial-era maps. Last major clashes occurred between 2008 and 2011, where fighting & artillery exchanges killed at least 34, & wounded many more & displaced thousands.

Commenting on Thursday’s clashes, Thailand’s acting premier, Phumtham Wechayachai, said the situation @Thailand’s border was “delicate”. “We have to be careful,” he told reporters. “We'll follow international law".
Thursday’s clash came after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia on Wednesday and said it would expel Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok, after a 2nd Thai soldier in the space of a week lost a limb to a landmine in disputed area. Thailand said landmine had been placed in area recently, claims Cambodia describes as baseless. They has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining grps.

Thai govt has also ordered closure of all border checkpoints under their jurisdiction of Thailand’s Second Army, the ruling Pheu Thai party said. 

Tourists strictly prohibited from entering border areas.   Hostilities between Cambodia / Thailand have continued to escalate in recent months were initially ignited after a Cambodian soldier was killed in May in an armed confrontation in an area both countries claim as their. Many border checkpoints have already been closed by one side or the other or operated with restrictions.