Tensions along the Thailand-Cambodia border flared into open conflict on Thursday (July 24) as the Thai military confirmed it had deployed an F-16 fighter jet and launched airstrikes on two Cambodian military positions.The Thai army said the airstrikes came in response to a rocket attack from Cambodian forces that wounded three Thai civilians near the contested area. Both nations accused each other of initiating the violence, with armed exchanges erupting along a disputed and largely undemarcated stretch of their 817-km shared border.
The clashes follow weeks of diplomatic deterioration that reached a boiling point late Wednesday when Thailand expelled Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok and recalled its own ambassador. The trigger was a second Thai soldier losing a limb to what Thailand alleges are newly planted landmines on its side of the border, an accusation Cambodia has dismissed as baseless.
Cambodia’s former prime minister Hun Sen said in a Facebook post that Thai forces had shelled two Cambodian provinces. The Thai military has denied targeting civilians, saying its actions were in line with defensive military protocol and international law.In response to the border clashes, the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh issued an urgent advisory urging all Thai nationals in Cambodia to leave the country. Meanwhile, the Cambodian government announced it was downgrading diplomatic ties with Thailand and had begun withdrawing its embassy staff from Bangkok.
The clashes follow weeks of diplomatic deterioration that reached a boiling point late Wednesday when Thailand expelled Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok and recalled its own ambassador. The trigger was a second Thai soldier losing a limb to what Thailand alleges are newly planted landmines on its side of the border, an accusation Cambodia has dismissed as baseless.
Cambodia’s former prime minister Hun Sen said in a Facebook post that Thai forces had shelled two Cambodian provinces. The Thai military has denied targeting civilians, saying its actions were in line with defensive military protocol and international law.In response to the border clashes, the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh issued an urgent advisory urging all Thai nationals in Cambodia to leave the country. Meanwhile, the Cambodian government announced it was downgrading diplomatic ties with Thailand and had begun withdrawing its embassy staff from Bangkok.
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