TALL plumes of smoke rising over Phnom Penh amid continuous explosions of rockets and shells testified to the punishment inflicted on the Cambodian capital and its frightened population yesterday by the armies of its two rival prime ministers.
An oil depot and garment factory on the outskirts appeared to have been hit by shell fire, sending a pall of smoke over the city as troops commanded by the second prime minister, Mr Hun Sen, attempted to crush forces loyal to first prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and his royalist party, Funcinpec.
The fighting erupted on Saturday when Mr Hun unleashed an operation which he says is a bid to stabilise Cambodia by mopping up illicit weapon stores, curbing illegal troop movements and preventing the importation of Khmer Rouge forces into the capital.
Some of the heaviest fighting raged yesterday in a densely populated western district of the capital, home to several senior royalist military officers. They were targeted by Mr Hun's troops on the pretext they were the hub of the illegal arms and troop build-up.
Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, in a message from the Chinese capital where he is resting, called on the two prime ministers to end the fighting immediately and to visit him in Beijing.
But Prince Ranariddh, who left for Thailand the day before the fighting started, issued a statement denouncing Mr Hun's action as an attempted coup and urging his followers to resist the onslaught.
Contact continued between ministers of the rival parties and Japan has offered to mediate but neither side showed any interest in negotiations at a time when both were claiming to have gained the upper hand.
Senior officials of Mr Hun's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) claimed their forces controlled at least 80 or 90 per cent" of Phnom Penh by late yesterday and expected to subdue all resistance in a day or so. But in the maze of roads and broken red mud back streets where fighting was fiercest it was impossible to determine which side if any had the advantage. Confusion reigned as explosions erupted simultaneously on different sides and clusters of Mr Hun's soldiers deployed with armoured vehicles fired off volleys of automatic weapons and heavier artillery at targets hidden among the narrow alleys.
Mr Hun's troops also sealed off the road to Phnom Penh's airport where artillery fire could be heard as his forces attacked the main concentration of royalist soldiers less than a mile from the airport terminal. But the noise of artillery barrages and fighting late yesterday suggested their claims to have captured the royalist base and taken control of the airport was premature.
For its part Funcinpec claimed to have captured and destroyed numerous CPP tanks and armoured vehicles deployed in the assault on the royalist base. Party officials claimed reinforcements were heading for Phnom Penh from the provinces and that they, not Mr Hun's troops, controlled the airport. Heavy fighting also reportedly erupted in western border provinces, areas of strong Funcinpec influence from the days of the party's 1980s alliance with the Khmer Rouge against Mr Hun's government.
Doctors in Phnom Penh's Calmette hospital reported they had received 39 wounded and one dead from yesterday's fighting. That was on top of three killed and 25 wounded the day before. Virtually all were civilians, including women and small children.
Few ambulances seemed to be operating and casualties arrived propped on motor cycles or pushed on hand carts past gun toting security guards
The clearest feature of the fighting was the terror it aroused in a population worn down by decades of conflict. Streets filled with forlorn residents fleeing their houses clutching whatever they could carry, balance on their heads, or push in carts, many of them heading for the countryside.
"It's like 1975 all over again," said a civil servant, alluding to the year Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge marched triumphantly into Phnom Penh and days later launched their reign of terror by forcing its entire population to leave the city.