Thailand strikes Cambodia as border conflict reignites

Thai army says one soldiers has been killed and eight were wounded in latest clashes

An injured soldier is transferred to a hospital in Thailand's Sisaket province on Sunday following a clash between Thai and Cambodian troops. Reuters

Thailand launched air strikes against Cambodia as fighting broke out along the disputed border and both countries accused the other of breaching the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.

At least one Thai soldier was killed and eight wounded in the fresh clashes that intensified around 5am local time, a Thai army spokesperson said, adding that air support was called in to hit Cambodian military targets.

Thailand's air force said Cambodia mobilised heavy weaponry, repositioned combat units and prepared support elements that could escalate military operations.

“These developments prompted the use of air power to deter and reduce Cambodia's military capabilities,” the Thai air force said in a statement.

Cambodia's Defence Ministry said in a statement that the Thai military had launched dawn attacks on its forces at two locations following days of provocative actions, and added that Cambodian troops had not responded.

Cambodia's influential former longtime leader Hun Sen, father of current premier Hun Manet, said Thailand's military are the “aggressors” seeking to provoke a retaliatory response and urged Cambodian forces to exercise restraint.

People flee an area of Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province after attacks by the Thai military on Monday. EPA

“The red line for responding has already been set,” Mr Hun Sen said on Facebook, without elaborating. “I urge commanders at all levels to educate all officers and soldiers accordingly.”

Three Cambodian civilians have been seriously injured in the fighting so far, according to a senior provincial official.

The simmering border dispute between the countries erupted into a five-day conflict in July, before a ceasefire deal brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Mr Trump, who also witnessed the signing of an expanded peace agreement between the two countries in Kuala Lumpur in October.

Mr Ibrahim, chair of the Association of South-east Asian Nations bloc, urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint and maintain open channels of communication.

“The renewed fighting risks unravelling the careful work that has gone into stabilising relations between the two neighbours,” Mr Ibrahim said in a post on X.

South-east Asian countries have rarely engaged in military clashes among themselves in recent decades, with the use of cross-border air strikes even rarer.

Phichet Pholkoet, a resident of Thailand's Ban Kruat district near the border with Cambodia, said he had heard gunfire since early Monday morning.

“It startled me” he said. “The explosions were very clear. Boom, boom! I could hear everything clearly. Some are heavy artillery, some are small arms.”

In Thailand, more than 385,000 civilians were being evacuated across four border districts, with more than 35,000 already housed in temporary shelters, the Thai military said.

Across the border in Cambodia, opposition politician Meach Sovannara said civilians were also moving away from the fighting along the frontier.

“I heard the artillery shelling,” he told Reuters in an audio message from Samroang town, the capital of Oddar Meanchey Province, which abuts Thailand.

More than 1,100 families in Oddar Meanchey had been evacuated, authorities there said.

At least 48 people were killed and an estimated 300,000 temporarily displaced during the July clashes, with the neighbours exchanging rockets and heavy artillery fire for five days.

With reporting from agencies.