Under siege: Cambodian soldiers reloading the BM-21 multiple rocket launcher in Preah Vihear province. — Agencies
Jet strikes and shelling kill civilians as Thailand-Cambodia tensions boil over
A Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia, both sides said, as weeks of tension over a border dispute escalated into clashes that have killed at least 12 people, including 11 civilians.
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.
Both countries accused each other of starting the clash yesterday.
“We have used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon told reporters.
Thailand also closed its border with Cambodia.
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”.
The skirmishes came after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia late on Wednesday and said it would expel Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok, after a second Thai soldier in the space of a week lost a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently in the disputed area.
A man looking at the damage to Phanom Dong Rak hospital in Surin province, Thailand, after Cambodia fired artillery shells. — Agencies
Thailand’s health minister said 11 civilians, including a child, and one soldier were killed in artillery shelling by Cambodian forces while 24 civilians and seven military personnel were wounded.
There was no immediate word of casualties in Cambodia.
“The Thai Army condemns Cambodia for using weapons to attack civilians in Thailand.
“Thailand is ready to protect sovereignty and our people from inhumane action,” the country’s military said in a statement.
China expressed concern at the fighting and said it was willing to play a role in promoting de-escalation.
Thai residents including children and the elderly ran to shelters built of concrete and fortified with sandbags and car tyres in the Surin border province.
“How many rounds have been fired? It’s countless,” an unidentified woman told the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) while hiding in the shelter as gunfire and explosions were heard intermittently in the background.
Cambodia’s foreign ministry said Thailand’s airstrikes were “unprovoked” and called on its neighbour to withdraw its forces and “refrain from any further provocative actions that could escalate the situation”.
For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817km land border, which has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a week-long exchange of artillery in 2011.
People resting at a shelter following recent clashes along the disputed border between the two countries in Surin province. — Agencies
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.
The clashes began early yesterday near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple along the border between Cambodia and Thailand, about 360km east of Bangkok.
Thailand’s Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin told reporters the deaths took place across three border provinces and included an eight-year-old boy in Surin.
He added that the Cambodian shelling included a strike on a hospital in Surin province, which he said should be considered a war crime.
“Artillery shell fell on people’s homes,” Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, district chief of Kabcheing in Surin province, said, adding that authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 border villages to safer locations.
“Two people have died,” he added.
Video footage showed a plume of thick black smoke rising from a gas station in the neighbouring Thai Sisaket province, as firefighters rushed to extinguish the blaze.
A total of eight people have been killed and 15 wounded in Sisaket, the health minister said, adding that another person was killed in the border province of Ubon Ratchathani.
The army said Cambodia deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops with heavy weapons, including rocket launchers, to an area near the Ta Moan Thom temple.
A spokesperson for Cambodia’s defence ministry, however, said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defence.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the situation was delicate.
“We have to be careful,” he told reporters.
“We will follow international law.” — Reuters
