The number of fatalities from Cambodia’s attacks on Thai civilian areas has risen to 12, including an eight-year-old boy, with over 30 injuries, according to the Thai army.
Thai authorities confirmed that civilian zones were hit by supporting fire, resulting in fatalities, injuries and property damage after Cambodian forces launched artillery strikes into Thai territory following a morning assault on a Thai military base near the Ta Muen Thom temple in Surin province.
The affected areas included:
- Surin: Two civilians killed, including an eight-year-old boy; four civilians injured; five soldiers wounded.
- Ubon Ratchathani: One civilian killed; four seriously injured.
- Si Sa Ket: Eight civilians killed, including a 15-year-old; 15 civilians injured; one soldier killed, two wounded.
- Buri Ram: One civilian injured.
The army said it will protect Thailand’s sovereignty and its citizens, stating it is prepared to take all necessary military measures.
In Surin's Kap Choeng district, two people were killed - a 12-year-old child and an adult - and two injured when BM-21 rockets fired from Cambodia struck their village in the morning. Evacuations of up to 40,000 residents to emergency shelters were under way.
Authorities were evacuating people from 86 villages to emergency shelters at schools in the neighbouring Prasat district, Surin.
Patients in Kap Choeng were being evacuated from Phanom Dong Rak and Kap Choeng hospitals after rockets fell near the Ta Muen temple ruins. Further casualty reports were not immediately available.
In Si Sa Ket, two people were reported killed and many other civilians hurt when Cambodian rockets fell into a supermarket at a petrol station in Ban Phue.
Reports said that the two deaths at the supermarket were students.
