Bangkok: Thailand launched airstrikes against Cambodia on Monday, dragging both nations back into a long-running territorial dispute that has been simmering for decades.
After a round of hostilities, the US has stepped in to broker peace between the two countries. The fresh strikes and evacuations that followed, that the truce may not hold for long.
The airstrikes came after its officials reported firing from the Cambodian side of the disputed border. Major General Winthai Suvaree confirmed that a Thai soldier was killed and four others injured in the exchange of fire, prompting authorities to move civilians out of vulnerable areas.
Thai aircraft were deployed to “strike military targets in several areas to suppress Cambodian supporting fire attacks”, he added. This was necessary to protect Thai forces stationed near the border, he said.
Cambodia’s defense ministry spokesperson Maly Socheata, however, said Thai forces initiated Monday’s confrontation and asserted that Cambodian troops refrained from retaliatory fire during the initial barrage.
“Cambodia urges that Thailand immediately stop all hostile activities that threaten peace and stability in the region,’ she said in a statement.
The rising tension also disrupted daily life along the border. Cambodia’s education ministry ordered several nearby schools to close. Images posted on the ministry’s Facebook page showed young students rushing out to meet their parents, some leaving on foot while others rode away on motorbikes.
Monday’s confrontation followed a brief firing incident on Sunday, during which both nations again accused each other of shooting first. The Thai army said two of its soldiers were wounded by Cambodian fire, leading to a 20-minute exchange. Cambodia rejected that version of events, claiming Thailand initiated the clash and that Cambodian forces did not return fire.
These confrontations come at a delicate time. The ceasefire brokered in October, pushed by then-U.S. President Donald Trump to halt five days of deadly clashes in July, was already under pressure. The agreement faltered last month after several Thai soldiers were injured by land mines, prompting Thailand to suspend its participation in the ceasefire implementation. Both sides continue to blame each other for the mine-related injuries, even though the agreement requires joint efforts to remove explosives from the border zone.
Trump had previously claimed in November that he helped prevent a war between the two nations, yet the latest violence signals ongoing instability.
Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia are shaped by a history that stretches back centuries to when both were rival empires. In modern times, the dispute has centered on conflicting interpretations of a 1907 colonial-era map drawn while Cambodia was under French rule. Thailand has long argued that the map is flawed.
