Thai and Cambodian soldiers clashed in several areas along their border Thursday in a major escalation of their conflict that left at least 11 people dead, mostly civilians. The two sides fired small arms, artillery, and rockets, and Thailand also called in airstrikes.
Thai villagers could be seen on video fleeing their homes to seek shelter as the clashes began in the morning.
Fighting was ongoing in at least six areas along the border, Thai Defense Ministry spokesman Surasant Kongsiri said. The trigger for the clashes was a mine explosion along the border on Wednesday that wounded five Thai soldiers and led Bangkok to withdraw its ambassador to Cambodia and expel Cambodia’s.
Thailand closed northeastern border crossings with Cambodia and said Wednesday it was withdrawing its ambassador and expelling the Cambodian ambassador to protest a land mine blast in which a Thai soldier lost a leg.
Thailand has also sealed all land border crossings while urging its citizens to leave Cambodia.
The Southeast Asian neighbors have long-standing border disputes that periodically flare along their 800-kilometer (500-mile) frontier and usually result in brief confrontations that sometimes involve exchanges of gunfire.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Marty Kaufmann
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
