Thailand and Cambodia fought in their most deadly border clashes in more than a decade on Thursday, with Thai officials reporting 13 civilians and a Thai soldier were killed in rocket and artillery attacks.
Clashes broke out on Thursday morning after weeks of simmering tensions over a long-running border dispute between the south-east-Asian neighbours. Both countries accused each other of opening fire first.
At least 13 Thai civilians and one soldier were killed in artillery shelling by Cambodian forces, according to Thai authorities, while 14 soldiers and 32 other civilians were injured.
Thailand’s health minister, Somsak Thepsuthin, said the Cambodian shelling included a strike on a hospital in Surin province, which he said should be considered a war crime.
Those killed included an eight-year-old boy, according to the Thai military, which said people had been killed across three provinces. There was fighting at six locations, a spokesperson said.
The Thai military said its air force had launched airstrikes on military targets in Cambodia.
Cambodia has not said whether it has recorded any fatalities. The Cambodian defence ministry said Thai jets dropped two bombs on a road, condemning what it described as “reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.
People on both sides of the border were told to evacuate. Footage from Thailand showed people rushing to seek safety under a concrete structure. In another video, taken from CCTV footage and broadcast on Thai media, a man is seen clutching a tree for shelter as blasts are heard in the background.
Clashes broke out near the Khmer Hindu temple Ta Muen Thom on Thursday morning. The Thai military said Cambodian troops had opened fire near the temple and deployed a surveillance drone before sending in troops with heavy weapons, including rocket launchers.
Cambodia denied the claims. Its ministry of national defence said the Thai military launched the first armed assault.
“Cambodian forces acted strictly within the bounds of self-defence, responding to an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops that violated our territorial integrity,” the ministry said in a statement.
Cambodia’s influential former premier Hun Sen, the father of the current prime minister, Hun Manet, said two Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from Thailand’s military.
In a statement posted online, Hun Manet said: “Cambodia has always taken a stand to solve problems peacefully, but in this case we have no choice but to respond with armed forces against armed aggression.”
The clashes are the latest in a history of conflict along Cambodia and Thailand’s 508-mile (817km) border, sections of which are subject to overlapping territorial claims due to disagreements about colonial-era maps.
The last serious clashes occurred between 2008 and 2011, when fighting and artillery exchanges killed at least 34 people, wounded many more and displaced thousands.
China was “deeply concerned” by Thursday’s clashes, its foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said, adding that Beijing “has and will continue to in its own way do its best to promote peace and dialogue”.
The Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, whose country chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, called on Thailand and Cambodia to stand down.
The most recent tensions began in May, when troops briefly exchanged fire in a contested area, killing a Cambodian soldier. This led to retaliatory measures by both sides.
The crisis escalated further on Wednesday when five Thai soldiers were injured by a landmine, the second such incident in a week. Thailand responded by recalling its ambassador to Cambodia on Wednesday and saying it would expel Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok.
Thailand alleged the landmines had been placed in the area recently – claims that Cambodia denies.
The Thai government has ordered the closure of all border checkpoints under the jurisdiction of Thailand’s second army, the ruling Pheu Thai party said.
“Tourists are strictly prohibited from entering these border areas,” it said.
Many border checkpoints had already been closed by one side or the other or operated with restrictions.
Thailand’s acting premier, Phumtham Wechayachai, said the situation at Thailand’s border was “delicate”. “We have to be careful,” he told reporters. “We will follow international law.”
Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation. Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, was suspended from office on 1 July after she was accused of possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.
She was strongly criticised in Thailand after a recording of her discussing the dispute with Hun Sen were leaked. Critics accused her of kowtowing to Cambodia and betraying her country in the call. She said she was trying to negotiate and to calm tensions.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to reporting
