Tens of thousands have fled fresh violence along the Thailand Cambodia border, as both countries vowed to continue fighting.
Seven civilians have been killed and 20 wounded in Cambodia, according to the country’s military, while a Thai military spokesperson said three soldiers had died, in the latest border conflict.
The renewed combat which began on Monday and continued on Tuesday, with the neighbouring countries blaming each other.
Villagers on both sides fled to safety. An evacuation shelter at a university in Thailand’s northeastern city of Surin hosted more than 3,600 people who were relocated from the danger zones.
They sat or laid on thin mats and several set up small tents. At lunchtime, some lined up to receive cooked rice, while others were served ready-to-eat meals. An army band played for their entertainment.
“We were preparing to evacuate. We hadn’t left yet. But when we heard shots we hurried out immediately,” said cassava farmer Pan-ngam Kanchangthong. “I was scared. Who wouldn’t be scared of shelling?”
It is the fiercest fighting between the southeast Asian countries since a five-day conflict in July saw dozens killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
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That fighting was ended by a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.
Mr Trump has not yet commented on the fresh outbreak but an administration official on Monday said the president was “committed to the continued cessation of violence and expects the governments of Cambodia and Thailand to fully honour their commitments to end this conflict”.
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But Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday that Cambodia had not yet contacted Thailand about possible negotiations and the fighting would continue.
“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” he said. “The government will support all kinds of military operations as planned earlier.”
On Monday, he had said military action was necessary to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty and ensure public safety.
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Cambodia’s senate president Hun Sen said on Tuesday that his country waited 24 hours, to honour the ceasefire and allow for evacuations, before launching counterattacks overnight against Thai forces.
Thailand, however, says that Cambodian forces also fired at its troops Sunday and Monday.
“Cambodia wants peace, but Cambodia is forced to fight back to defend its territory,” Mr Hun Sen, who is widely seen as the de facto leader of the country, said in a Facebook statement.
In Thailand, military officials said there were clashes in five border provinces, and that a Navy-led operation in its Trat province to expel Cambodian soldiers was expected to end soon.
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On Monday Thailand carried out airstrikes along the frontier, which it said were a defensive action targeting military installations.
Thai military spokesperson Rear Adm. Surasant Kongsiri said on Tuesday that such operations would continue “until attacks stop”.
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Tensions have simmered since the neighbouring countries signed the US-brokered ceasefire agreement in October, put forward by President Trump.
The two nations’ border disagreements are more than a century old and remain unresolved.
An all-out war seems highly unlikely as neither side can afford one. But if civilian targets are hit, tensions could very quickly intensify, Sky News’ Asia correspondent, Cordelia Lynch, wrote on Monday.
