Cambodia and Thailand showed no signs of backing down Friday in their conflict along their border, their deadliest clashes in at least a decade.
Thailand has evacuated more than 130,000 people along its border with Cambodia as the fighting spread to new areas, with both sides firing artillery.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs has advised against all travel to the entirety of the border region between Cambodia and Thailand over the clashes.
Clashes had taken place in 12 locations along the disputed border, according to a Thai military official – an expansion of the conflict that erupted a day earlier.
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Thai officials said 138,000 people from four border provinces had been evacuated, as the country’s death toll increased to 15, including 14 civilians. An eight-year-old boy was among those killed.
Cambodia’s national government has not provided details of any casualties or evacuations of civilians, but a local official in Oddar Meanchey province told Reuters that one civilian had been killed and five were wounded, with 1,500 families evacuated.
Thailand’s acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, told reporters in Bangkok: “This present incident of aggression is escalating and could develop to the stage of war. However, right now we are still at altercation level, battling with heavy weapons. What we have done so far is to protect our land and sovereignty of our nation.”
Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Manet, said he had supported a proposal by Malaysia for a ceasefire, but claimed Thailand had initially agreed, only to reverse its decision. Both sides have accused the other of starting the clashes and of violating international norms.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said later on Friday it had agreed in principle to a Malaysian proposal, but that it must be based on “appropriate on-the-ground conditions”.
“It must be stated that throughout the day, Cambodian forces have continued their indiscriminate attacks on Thai territory,” the ministry said in a post on X.
Malaysia, which chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc, called on Thailand and Cambodia to stand down, while the US and China both expressed concern. Fighting resumed from before dawn on Friday in the Ubon Ratchathani and Surin provinces, according to the Thai military.
“Cambodian forces have conducted sustained bombardment utilising heavy weapons, field artillery and BM-21 rocket systems,” the Thai military said in a statement. “Thai forces have responded with appropriate supporting fire in accordance with the tactical situation.”
Fighting first broke out on Thursday morning after weeks of simmering tensions over a long-running border dispute between the south-east-Asian neighbours.
The clashes are the latest in a history of conflict along Cambodia and Thailand’s 508-mile (817km) border, sections of which are subject to overlapping claims owing to disagreements about colonial-era maps.
Tensions have been high since May, when troops briefly exchanged fire in a contested area, killing a Cambodian soldier. This led to retaliatory measures by both sides.
The crisis worsened on Wednesday when five Thai soldiers were injured by a landmine, the second such incident in a week. Thailand responded by recalling its ambassador to Cambodia and saying it would expel Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok. Thailand alleged the landmines had been placed in the area recently, which Cambodia denies.
The following day, Thailand accused Cambodia of launching rocket and artillery attacks, including in civilian areas, and said its air force had launched airstrikes on military targets.
The dispute has been fanned by nationalist sentiment, compounded by a bitter feud between two powerful politicians: Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for four decades before handing power to his son Hun Manet in 2023, and Thaksin Shinawatra, the former populist leader of Thailand, whose daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra became prime minister in 2024. Both former leaders remain highly influential.
On Thursday night, Thaksin said on social media he had thanked countries that had offered to mediate but would like to wait a little bit, adding: “We need to let the Thai military do their job, and teach Hun Sen a lesson.”
Hun Sen responded on Facebook that Thaksin’s “warlike tone” underscored “Thailand’s military aggression toward Cambodia”.
The UN security council was due to meet on Friday over the conflict. The US, a longtime treaty ally of Thailand, called for an immediate end to hostilities.
“We are … gravely concerned by the escalating violence along the Thailand-Cambodia border and deeply saddened by reports of harm to civilians,” the state department’s deputy spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, told a regular news briefing.
China also said it was “deeply concerned” by the clashes and that that Beijing “has and will continue to in its own way do its best to promote peace and dialogue”. - The Guardian and agencies
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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