Thailand launches air strikes on Cambodia as border tensions reignite
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Follow topic:
BANGKOK – Thailand launched air strikes along its border with Cambodia on Dec 8 as fighting broke out along their disputed border, threatening a delicate US-brokered peace accord.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Thailand did not want to see violence, but its military was ready to take necessary measures to maintain security and Thai sovereignty.
At least one Thai soldier has been killed and eight wounded in fresh clashes that intensified early on Dec 8, Thai army spokesman Major-General Winthai Suvaree said in a news briefing.
Air support was called in to hit Cambodian military targets, he said.
Thailand’s Air Force said Cambodia mobilised heavy weaponry, repositioned combat units and prepared support elements that could escalate military operations.
“Thailand was left with no choice but to act in self-defence after observing continued Cambodian attacks against Thai forces,” Maj-Gen Winthai said. “Cambodia has a history of repeatedly violating ceasefire agreements.”
Cambodia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that the Thai military launched dawn attacks on its forces at two locations, following days of provocative actions, but added that Cambodian troops had not retaliated.
Cambodia’s influential former longtime leader Hun Sen, father of current Prime Minister Hun Manet, said Thailand’s military were “aggressors” seeking to provoke a retaliatory response and urged Cambodian forces to exercise restraint.
“The red line for responding has already been set. I urge commanders at all levels to educate all officers and soldiers accordingly,” Mr Hun Sen said on Facebook, without elaborating.
In a Facebook post on Dec 8, deputy governor of Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province Met Measpheakdey said three Cambodian civilians have been seriously injured.
The strikes follow back-and-forth accusations over the weekend of firing across the border, with both sides accusing the other of firing first.
The border dispute erupted into a five-day war in July before a ceasefire deal
‘Explosions... boom, boom’
Datuk Seri Anwar, chair of the Association of South-east Asian Nations, urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint and maintain open channels of communication.
“The renewed fighting risks unravelling the careful work that has gone into stabilising relations between the two neighbours,” Mr Anwar said in a post on X.
Mr Phichet Pholkoet, who lives in Thailand’s Ban Kruat district near Cambodia, said he has heard gunfire since early on Dec 8.
“It startled me. The explosions were very clear. Boom boom!” he said via telephone. “I could hear everything clearly. Some are heavy artillery, some are small arms.”
In Thailand, more than 385,000 civilians across four border districts were being evacuated, with more than 35,000 already housed in temporary shelters, the Thai military said.
Across the border in Cambodia, opposition politician Meach Sovannara said civilians were also moving away from the fighting along the frontier.
“I heard the artillery shelling,” he told Reuters in an audio message from Samroang town, the capital of Oddar Meanchey Province, which abuts Thailand.
More than 1,100 families in Oddar Meanchey have been evacuated, authorities there said.
At least 48 people were killed and an estimated 300,000 temporarily displaced during the July clashes, with the neighbours exchanging rockets and heavy artillery fire.
Landmines among catalysts
Thailand and Cambodia have, for more than a century, contested sovereignty at undemarcated points along their 817km land border, first mapped in 1907 by France when it ruled Cambodia as a colony.
The longstanding dispute has occasionally exploded into skirmishes, such as a weeklong artillery exchange in 2011, despite attempts to peacefully resolve overlapping claims.
Tensions began rising in May 2025, following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, and steadily escalated into diplomatic spats and armed clashes.
Although Mr Anwar and Mr Trump were able to halt the fighting within days and cemented a ceasefire agreement at a regional summit in October, Thailand said in November it was halting the implementation a landmine blast
Thailand has repeatedly accused Cambodia of planting fresh landmines along parts of their disputed border, which have seriously injured at least seven Thai soldiers since July.
Phnom Penh denies the charge.
Some of the mines found along the frontier were likely newly laid, based on expert analysis of material shared by Thailand’s military. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
