Thailand launched air strikes against neighboring Cambodia on Friday as renewed clashes along their disputed border escalated sharply, with both sides trading blame and reporting casualties. At least four Cambodian civilians and one Thai soldier were killed, officials said, as evacuations widened and artillery and rockets pounded frontier areas.
Thailand’s Second Army Region said about 35,000 people have been evacuated from Thai border communities, while Cambodia’s information minister, Neth Pheaktra, reported at least 1,157 families were moved to safety in Oddar Meanchey province. The spike in violence followed what both militaries described as a brief skirmish a day earlier.
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Thai army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said the air force struck Cambodian positions early Friday “in an act of self-defense,” insisting the campaign was limited to military targets along the clash line. “The air strikes are highly precise and aimed solely at military objectives along the clash line, with no impact on civilians,” he told reporters.
Cambodia accused Thailand of widening the fight and deploying heavy armor near centuries-old temples that straddle the border. Defense ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata said Thai troops attacked Cambodian forces in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey, “firing multiple shots with tanks,” and later used an F-16 jet in Preah Vihear. She said Cambodia had not retaliated.
Neth Pheaktra said at least four Cambodian civilians were killed by Thai shelling in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey. About 10 others were wounded, including a Cambodian journalist hit by shrapnel from a Thai rocket, he said. The Thai army reported one soldier killed and 18 wounded since the fighting flared.
Thailand also accused Cambodian forces of firing BM-21 rockets toward civilian areas in Thailand’s Buriram province. No casualties were reported in that incident.
Residents on both sides described hurried flights to safety as shells fell near villages. In Thailand’s Surin province, farmer Pannarat Woratham, 59, said she fled to a temple shelter in the afternoon — the second time she has evacuated since late July, when both armies traded fighter jet sorties, missile strikes and ground fire. “Of course many of us thought the conflict was finally over. It shouldn’t have happened again like this,” she told AFP.
Across the frontier, Cambodian villager Hul Malis said she fled from Prey Chan in Banteay Meanchey province minutes before Thai units entered the border community. “They came in with tanks,” she said other residents told her. “I am so scared and I am running away” to the provincial capital, she added.
The frontier, carved by French colonial-era maps, has long been contested, particularly around temple complexes including Preah Vihear. Prey Chan was the site of a tense September standoff between several hundred Cambodian demonstrators and Thai forces, who used rubber bullets and tear gas.
The latest flare-up threatens to unravel fragile efforts to cap months of sporadic violence. Five days of fighting this summer killed 43 people and displaced about 300,000 on both sides before a truce took effect. In October, a follow-on joint declaration to prolong the cease-fire was co-signed by Donald Trump, who touted trade deals with both countries tied to de-escalation. Thailand suspended the agreement last month after a land mine blast at the border wounded several soldiers, and the sides soon exchanged accusations of violations that included at least one civilian death.
The United States, China and Malaysia, as chair of ASEAN, helped broker July’s cessation of hostilities. On Friday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim urged Bangkok and Phnom Penh to halt the fighting and return to diplomacy. In Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul brushed off calls for restraint. “No one should tell [Thailand] to stop,” he told reporters, adding: “If you want things to stop, tell the aggressor to stop.”
The competing claims and casualty reports could not be independently verified amid restricted access to the border zone. But the scope of the evacuations and the use of air power mark a dangerous intensification of a dispute that has repeatedly spilled over into civilian life — and now threatens to pull regional mediators back into an urgent push to prevent a broader war.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
