(Phnom Penh) New fire exchanges broke out on Thursday morning at the border between the armies of Cambodia and Thailand, the Cambodian Defense Ministry and the Thai army said.
The two countries have mutually accused of having opened fire first. The incident took place near old temples, at the Thai province of Surin (Northeast) and that of the Cambodian of Oddar Meanchey (northwest).
“Around 8:20 a.m. (9:20 p.m. East), the Cambodian forces opened towards fire towards the eastern flank of the Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple, about 200 meters from the Thai base,” the Thai army said in a statement.
The Thai army accused Cambodia on Thursday of launching rockets against its territory which, according to it, injured three civilians on Thursday.
The Thai army denounced a “targeted attack on civilians” by Cambodian forces, saying that two BM-21 rockets had affected a community in the Kap Choerg district of the South-East Province (Southeast), injuring three people.
Thailand also accused Cambodia of having used a drone on the disputed site, around 7:35 am (8 p.m. Eastern time).
“The Thai army has violated the territorial integrity of Cambodia by launching an armed attack on the Cambodian forces stationed,” said Maly Socheata, spokesperson for the Cambodian Defense Ministry.
“As a response, the Cambodian armed forces have exercised their legitimate right to self-defense, in full compliance with international law, to repel the Thai foray into the Thai foray,” she continued.
The Thailand Embassy in Phnom Penh asked all its nationals in Cambodia on Thursday to leave the country.
All Thai people must leave “as soon as possible” from Cambodia, except imperative reason to stay, wrote the Embassy on Facebook.
The two kingdoms of Southeast Asia have long opposed the layout of their common border, defined in the time of French Indochina, but the current crisis has been most serious in almost fifteen years.
The death of a Soldier Khmer following the exchange of fire in the middle of the night, at the end of May, in another disputed area of the border, set fire to the powders between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, who drastically reduced their economic and diplomatic exchanges.
Cambodia has downgraded diplomatic relations with its neighbor to the “lowest level”, the Cambodian Information Agency AKP reported on Thursday.
The day before, Bangkok recalled his ambassador in place at Phnom Penh and expelled that Cambodian from his territory, after a Thai soldier lost a leg while walking on a mine on the border.
The most violent modern episode linked to the border dates back to clashes that broke around the Preah Vihear temple between 2008 and 2011, which left at least 28 dead, and caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.
