Thailand launched air strikes on Cambodian navy targets on Thursday as Cambodia fired rockets and artillery, killing no less than 11 civilians, in a dramatic escalation of a long-running border row between the 2 neighbours.
The neighbours are locked in a bitter spat over an space often called the Emerald Triangle, the place the borders of each international locations and Laos meet, and which is house to a number of historical temples.
The squabble has dragged on for many years, flaring into bloody navy clashes greater than 15 years in the past and once more in Could, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a firefight.
The battle blazed up on Thursday, with Cambodia firing rockets and artillery shells into Thailand and the Thai navy scrambling F-16 jets to hold out air strikes.
The Thai ministry of public well being stated no less than 11 civilians had been killed, most of them in a rocket strike close to a petroleum station in Sisaket province.
Footage from the scene confirmed smoke pouring from the roof of a comfort retailer hooked up to the petrol station. Provincial officers stated many of the lifeless had been college students contained in the store when the assault occurred.
Six Thai air power jets had been deployed from Ubon Ratchathani province, hitting two “Cambodian navy targets on the bottom”, in keeping with Thai navy deputy spokesperson Ritcha Suksuwanon.
Each side blamed the opposite for beginning the combating, which erupted close to two temples on the border between the Thai province of Surin and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey.
Cambodian defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata stated in a press release that Thai troops launched an “armed assault on Cambodian forces”.
“In response, the Cambodian armed forces exercised their respectable proper to self-defence, in full accordance with worldwide legislation, to repel the Thai incursion and shield Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she stated.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet requested an pressing assembly of the UN Safety Council to deal with what his international ministry labelled “unprovoked navy aggression”.
Thailand’s authorities spokesman, in the meantime, accused Cambodia of being “inhumane, brutal and war-hungry”, and Bangkok’s international ministry stated all border crossings had been shut and close by residents evacuated.
The Thai navy blamed Cambodian troopers for firing first, and later accused them of a “focused assault on civilians”, saying two BM-21 rockets had hit a neighborhood in Surin’s Kap Choeng district, wounding three folks.
In line with the Thai navy, the clashes started round 7:35 am (0035 GMT) when a unit guarding Ta Muen temple heard a Cambodian drone overhead.
Later, six armed Cambodian troopers, together with one carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, approached a barbed-wired fence in entrance of the Thai put up, the military stated.
Round 8:20 am, Cambodian forces opened hearth towards the japanese aspect of the temple, about 200 metres from the Thai base.
Thailand’s performing Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai stated “the scenario requires cautious dealing with, and we should act in accordance with worldwide legislation”.
“We are going to do our greatest to guard our sovereignty,” he stated.
In a Fb put up, Thailand’s embassy in Phnom Penh urged its nationals to go away Cambodia “as quickly as potential” except they’d pressing causes to stay.
China, a detailed ally of Cambodia, stated it was “deeply involved” concerning the clashes, calling for dialogue — whereas additionally urging its residents in Cambodia to keep away from the nation’s frontier with Thailand.
Lengthy-running row
The violence got here hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its personal envoy in protest after 5 members of a Thai navy patrol had been wounded by a landmine.
On Thursday morning, Cambodia introduced it was downgrading ties to “the bottom stage”, pulling out all however one in every of its diplomats and expelling their Thai equivalents from Phnom Penh.
Current weeks have seen a sequence of tit-for-tat swipes by each side, with Thailand limiting border crossings and Cambodia halting sure imports.
The border row additionally kicked off a home political disaster in Thailand, the place prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been suspended from workplace pending an ethics probe over her conduct.
A diplomatic name between Paetongtarn and Hun Sen, Cambodia’s former longtime ruler and father of Hun Manet, was leaked from the Cambodian aspect, sparking a judicial investigation.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim known as on each side to “stand down” and begin talks.
Malaysia at present chairs the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which each Thailand and Cambodia are members.
