Thai officials say 12 have been killed in Cambodian shelling, as neighbours trade fire and accusations of blame.
A Thai F-16 fighter jet has bombed targets in Cambodia, as a simmering border dispute and diplomatic meltdown rapidly ignited into fierce clashes, bombing and shelling that have killed at least 11 civilians and a soldier in Thailand.
Thailand and Cambodia each blamed the other for the new outbreak of fighting that erupted early Thursday in an area near the disputed Ta Moan Thom Temple – located in a border area in northwestern Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Fighting then spread to at least six areas along the border, Thai military official Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said, leading Thailand’s military to close all border checkpoints between the countries.
Thailand’s Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said 11 Thai civilians and a soldier had been killed in Thursday’s violence, with the Thai army saying the victims, who included an 8-year-old boy, had been located across three provinces.
The health minister told reporters that Cambodia’s actions, including an attack on a hospital, should be considered war crimes.
Also among the victims were four civilians killed when the Cambodian army shelled a petrol station about 20km (12 miles) from the border, in the town of Ban Phue in Kantharalak district, Sisaket province, according to reports. Two others were killed when Cambodian shelling struck their homes, Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, the district chief of Kabcheing in Surin province, told the Reuters news agency.
He added that district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer locations. Thai residents, including children and the elderly, have fled to bomb shelters built of concrete and fortified with sandbags and car tyres.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council in response to the violence, saying it “gravely threatened peace in the region”.
Both sides trade blame
Both countries issued statements accusing the other of instigating the fighting that broke out early Thursday near a disputed temple, following weeks of heightened tension between the neighbours.
Thailand’s military said Cambodia had deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops to the area, who they said had opened fire with heavy weapons, including artillery and long-range BM21 rockets, forcing Thai soldiers to retaliate.
Thailand’s military said six F-16 fighter jets had been readied to deploy in the border conflict, and that their raids had hit two “Cambodian military targets on the ground”, according to Thai military deputy spokesperson Ritcha Suksuwanon.
In a situation deteriorating by the hour, Cambodian forces launched attacks on civilian areas in Thailand, including a hospital, causing deaths, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Thailand “is prepared to intensify our self-defence measures if Cambodia persists in its armed attack and violations upon Thailand’s sovereignty in accordance with international law and principles,” the ministry said in a statement.
Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence said the Thai 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 Cambodian ministry also accused Thailand of attacking first and violating an agreement designed to de-escalate tension, saying its troops had acted in self-defence after coming under attack.
Cambodia’s influential former prime minister, Hun Sen, said in a post on social media that Thailand’s military had shelled two Cambodian provinces bordering Thailand, Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear, adding that “the Cambodian army has no choice but to fight back and counterattack”.
He also called for the public to remain calm and not panic-buy rice and other food supplies.
Clashes likely to ‘expand’
The Royal Thai Embassy in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, said the situation on the border had “continuously escalated” and, with clashes likely to “be prolonged and expand”, urged its nationals to leave Cambodia “as soon as possible”, unless they had urgent reasons to remain.
At a briefing, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiaku, expressed Beijing’s deep concern about the situation, saying it hoped both sides would address their issues through dialogue. He said China would play a constructive role in promoting de-escalation.
Earlier, Beijing’s embassy in Cambodia had warned Chinese citizens there to avoid areas near the Thai border.
Long-simmering dispute ‘exploded’
Reporting from Koh Lanta, southern Thailand, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said the dispute “has been simmering for some time, but it seems to have exploded today”.
“There was a feeling up until today that this was a game of pressure, waiting to see who would crack first,” he said. “We hadn’t seen a lot of actual exchanges of fire over the border – but today, that all changed.”
He said the fighting had its origins in a longstanding dispute over the border drawn between the countries by the French during Cambodia’s colonial era, in regions where there had been relatively free movement of people back and forth for generations.
The dispute has dragged on for decades, flaring into deadly military clashes more than 15 years ago, and then again in May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a firefight further to the north of the conflict areas.
In recent weeks, tensions surged again after Thai soldiers were severely injured by land mines that the Thai military says were newly laid by Cambodian forces on the Thai side of the border. Meanwhile, Cambodia announced that it would begin military conscription from next year.
Cheng said nationalist sentiment was surging on both sides, with strongman Hun Sen – the former Cambodian prime minister and father of the current prime minister – “right at the heart of” whipping up tensions in his country over the dispute.
Thailand, Cambodia downgrade diplomatic relations
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 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.