Thailand, Cambodian troops trade fire in latest clash over disputed border | News

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Two civilians reported killed in Cambodian shelling of Thailand as Southeast Asian neighbours clash over long-running border dispute.

At least two civilians have been reported killed in Thailand and two Thai soldiers injured in clashes with Cambodian troops at a disputed area of their shared border.

Thailand’s military said on Thursday that Cambodian troops had opened fire earlier in an area near the disputed Ta Moan Thom Temple – located in a border area in northwestern Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.

Thailand’s military said Cambodia had deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops to the area, adding that Cambodian forces had then opened fire with heavy weapons including long-range BM21 rockets.

Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, a district chief in Thailand’s Surin province, told the Reuters news agency that two people were killed and others injured by Cambodian shelling on Thursday morning.

Some 40,000 Thai civilians from 86 villages along the border have also been evacuated to safer locations, the district chief said.

Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence issued its own statement on Thursday, accusing Thailand of attacking first.

According to the statement, Cambodian troops retaliated after coming under attack from Thailand’s army and had only acted in self-defence.

The country’s influential former prime minister, Hun Sen, said in a post on social media that two Cambodian provinces bordering Thailand – Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear – had been shelled by Thailand’s military.

Hun Sen said that “the Cambodian army has no choice but to fight back and counterattack”, while also calling for the public to remain calm and not panic-buy rice and other food supplies.

“Please carry on normal business in all sectors and everywhere except the border areas,” he said.

The latest fighting comes after a Thai soldier sustained injuries on Wednesday and lost his right leg in a landmine explosion, which authorities in Thailand have blamed on Cambodia. Three Thai soldiers were also injured by a mine blast while on a patrol along the disputed border area on July 16.

Cambodia has denied planting mines, and claims that Thai soldiers have veered off agreed jungle paths and triggered long-buried mines left behind from Cambodia’s decades of civil war.

Following the latest landmine incident, Thailand’s governing Pheu Thai Party said it had recalled Thailand’s ambassador to Cambodia and would expel Cambodia’s ambassador from the country.

Thailand has also downgraded diplomatic relations with Cambodia, the party said.

In response, Cambodia said that it would withdraw all of its diplomats from Thailand and ordered all Thai diplomats to leave the country.

The Cambodian government has also downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to the “lowest level”, reducing it to the rank of “second secretary”, according to local news outlet the Phnom Penh Post.

In May, the long-running border dispute between the two countries boiled over into military clashes that left one Cambodian soldier dead.

Border tension has soured relations between the Southeast Asian neighbours, with the two sides trading barbs and tit-for-tat retaliatory measures, including the closure of border crossings.

Cambodia has also blocked imports of fuel and gas, as well as fruit and vegetables, from Thailand.

Thailand and Cambodia have for more than a century contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border.