SREI SNAM — Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia spread today to new parts of their contested border as the toll rose to 10 killed and more than 140,000 civilians fled the violence.
The two countries have blamed each other for the renewed clashes over their century-old border dispute, which saw Thailand launch air strikes and use tanks against its neighbour on Monday.
Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen said his country had retaliated against Thailand, after Phnom Penh denied firing back for two days.
This week’s clashes are the most deadly since the neighbouring nations engaged in five days of intense combat in July that killed dozens of people and displaced around 300,000 before a truce took effect.
Tens of thousands of people have evacuated from border regions since the fresh fighting began on Sunday, officials said.
Cambodian Poan Hay, 55, said she left her home in Oddar Meanchey province on Monday as soon as she heard gunfire—the fourth time she evacuated this year due to on-and-off fighting on the frontier.
“I am so angry at the Thai army, but I ask them to stop firing at Cambodians,” Poan Hay told AFP.
She is sheltering at a pagoda with relatives about 70 kilometres from the border in Siem Reap province’s Srei Snam.
“For the last five months, I couldn’t sleep a lot. I was worried about our safety,” she said.
“Yesterday Thai jets flew along the border. I was so scared.”
Phnom Penh accused Thai forces of shelling positions overnight, which killed two people travelling on a national road.
Seven Cambodian civilians have been killed in total and about 20 wounded this week, Cambodia’s interior ministry said in a statement.
More than 21,000 people have been displaced from three border provinces, the ministry added.
The defence ministry said the Thai army had resumed attacks around 5:00 am Tuesday in border regions, including in the area of centuries-old temples, such as the Unesco world heritage site, the Preah Vihear temple.
The Thai army said three soldiers have been killed since Monday.
One was killed today by indirect fire in Surin province while a grenade killed another soldier in the area of the Preah Vihear temple.
Nearly 500 temporary shelters have been established across several border provinces, housing more than 125,000 civilian evacuees, according to a government statement.
Thai navy spokesperson Parat Rattanachaiphan said in a press conference that Thai forces recently detected Cambodian troops, settlements and several weapon bases in a disputed coastal area of Trat province.
Parat accused Cambodia of escalating tensions by deploying unmanned drones to provoke Thai forces.
Early Tuesday, he said Thai forces “launched a military operation to drive them out”.
