Thailand–Cambodia Border Clash Escalates: 11 Killed in Thailand, PM Refuses Talks Until Fighting Ceases

Thailand health ministry said Thursday that 12 others, 11 civilians and one Thai soldier, were killed in clash with Cambodian troops on disputed Koh Kong border.

The ministry said another 31 people inclusive of 24 civilians and seven security members had been injured.

Cambodian officials are yet to report deaths on their side.

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Thailand and Cambodia are at an armed clash over a long-running disagreement over a section of the joint border that has been aging longer than ever. The most recent violence broke out Thursday mornin gnear two ancient temples along a border between Surin province of Thailand and Oddar Meanchey of Cambodia. Now, Cambodia has requested UN in the case and made Thailand to be referred as a war-hungry country.

The Thai army said that the battle broke out at about 7.35 am after soldiers based at the Ta Muen temple spotted a drone of the Cambodian army. A few minutes later, a group of six heavily-armed Cambodian soldiers (one of whom allegedly possessed a rocket-propelled grenade) entered a barbed-wire fence along a Thai military installation. The Thai army says that Cambodian soldiers overstarted the firefight and it escalated even further.

The Thai side accused further Cambodia of a targeted attack on civilians whereby two BM-21-rockets hit a local community in the Surin province of Kap Choeng district, and left three local civilians injured.

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Cambodia however accused Thailand of initiating the clash. “The Thai military violated the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Cambodia by launching an armed assault on Cambodian forces stationed to defend the nation’s sovereign territory,” said defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata. She followed up that the Cambodian forces had acted upon self-defense as per the international law in order to counter the Thai incursion to defend the sovereignty of destination country.

The skirmish is the most recent eruption of a digression that has been decades long concerning possession of Emerald Triangle, a geopolitically delicate zone where Thailand, Cambodia and Laos boundaries meet. It is an area where there are several old temples and it has come under repeated clashes, most recently more than 15 years ago and again in May this year when a Cambodian soldier was killed.

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