Border clashes escalate / Thai F-16 jets bomb Cambodia

2025-07-24 07:49:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

A Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia on Thursday, both sides said, as weeks of tensions over a border dispute escalated into clashes that have killed at least two civilians.

Of the six F-16 fighter jets that Thailand prepared to deploy along the disputed border, one of them fired into Cambodia and destroyed a military target, the Thai military said. The two countries accused each other of starting the clash early Thursday.

"We have used air power against military targets as planned," Thai military deputy spokesman Richa Suksuwanon told reporters. Thailand also closed its border with Cambodia.

Cambodia's defense ministry said fighter jets dropped two bombs on a road and that it "strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia."

The clashes came after Thailand summoned its ambassador to Cambodia late Wednesday and said it would expel Cambodia's envoy to Bangkok, after a second Thai soldier in a week lost a limb to a landmine that Bangkok claims was recently placed in the disputed area.

Thai residents in the border province of Surin fled to shelters built of concrete and fortified with sandbags and car tires as the two sides exchanged fire.

"How many bullets were fired? There are countless," an unidentified woman told the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) while hiding in a shelter, as intermittent gunshots and explosions could be heard in the background.

For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have disputed sovereignty over various unmarked points along their 817km (508-mile) land border, which has led to clashes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a week-long artillery exchange in 2011.

Tensions reignited in May after the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, which escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and has now sparked armed clashes.

The clashes began early on Thursday near the controversial Ta Moan Thom temple along the eastern border between Cambodia and Thailand, about 360 km from the Thai capital Bangkok.

"Artillery shells fell on people's houses," Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, chief of Kabcheing district in Surin province, told Reuters, describing the shooting from the Cambodian side.

"Two people have died," he said, adding that district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer places.

Thailand's military said Cambodia deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops with heavy weapons to an area near the temple.

Cambodian troops opened fire and two Thai soldiers were wounded, a Thai military spokesman said, adding that Cambodia had used multiple weapons, including rocket launchers.

However, a spokesman for Cambodia's defense ministry said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defense.