Thailand said it used F-16 fighter jets to bomb Cambodian military targets on Monday to retaliate against cross-border firing that killed at least one Thai soldier, in a sharp escalation of a dispute between the two nations that President Trump claimed to have ended.
Each side accused the other of firing first, just as they had earlier this year, when a deadly armed conflict between the neighbors raged for five days.
Thailand said its airstrikes hit military installations in Cambodia, but it was not immediately clear how much damage they had caused. The Thai military said it was retaliating against an attack by Cambodia that killed at least one Thai soldier and injured eight others in a border province earlier in the day.
Cambodia said the Thai jets attacked at around 9 a.m., adding that the Thai armed forces had “engaged in numerous provocative actions for many days, with the objective of instigating confrontations.”
The strikes came nearly a month after Thailand pulled out of peace talks with Cambodia. Mr. Trump has taken credit for ending the earlier fighting, in which at least 40 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. But Monday’s fighting was a reminder of how intractable the rift between Cambodia and Thailand is.
The neighbors share a nearly 500-mile long boundary but large parts of it are undefined; some of the most fraught areas are home to centuries-old temples.
Monday’s hostilities followed an exchange of fire the previous day that did not appear to be deadly. Still on Sunday, officials ordered residents in four Thai provinces along the border — Buriram, Surin, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani — to evacuate to shelters. The Thai military said that 70 percent of people in the four provinces had done so. Videos posted on social media on Monday showed Cambodian schoolchildren fleeing the border region on foot.
Thailand’s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, addressed the nation on Monday, saying that the government would conduct all “necessary military operations.”
“Thailand has never been the initiator or aggressor in any way, but Thailand will not allow any violation of sovereignty,” he said.
Later, he told reporters that negotiation would not work anymore because of Cambodia’s actions and that “Cambodia must comply to our conditions in order to stop the fight.”
“It’s too late. We’ve been patient,” Mr. Anutin said. “If you want the fight to stop, go tell the aggressor.” When asked about the agreement to resolve the border dispute signed in Kuala Lumpur in October, Mr. Anutin said: “I don’t remember that anymore.”
Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, who with Mr. Trump brokered the cease-fire in July, called on both Thailand and Cambodia to exercise restraint.
“Our region cannot afford to see longstanding disputes slip into cycles of confrontation,” Mr. Anwar said in a statement.
Tensions had ratcheted up on Sunday, when Thailand said that Cambodian troops had opened fire in the Thai province of Sisaket, prompting Thai forces to respond. Two Thai soldiers were injured, the Thai authorities said.
Cambodia’s Defense Ministry accused Thailand of firing first, into the Cambodian province of Preah Vihear, using handguns, B40 rocket launchers and 60 millimeter mortars. It said Cambodian forces contacted the Thais and demanded an immediate halt to the firing and that Cambodia had not fired back. The Thai military, it said, then stopped firing within 15 minutes.
But the hostilities resumed on Monday.
The Thai army said that Cambodia had opened fire with small arms early in the morning in the Nam Yuen district of Ubon Ratchathani province, killing at least one soldier and injuring eight others.
Later in the day, it said that Cambodian forces had fired BM-21 rockets toward Thai civilian areas in the Ban Kruat District of Buriram province, prompting the Thai airstrikes. It said there were no reports of casualties from the rocket attack.
Maj. Gen. Winthai Suvaree the Thai Army spokesman, said the F-16 airstrikes hit three Cambodian military installations near the border, including a radio tower near the Preah Vihear Temple. Cambodia did not immediately comment on the aftermath of the strikes.
Later in the day, the Thai army ordered its forces to be on alert along another section of the border, near Sa Kaeo province, after Thai intelligence reported that Cambodian troops were preparing to open a new front, according to Thai news media.
The use of air power by Southeast Asian nations against each other is rare. Thailand’s deployment of F-16s to bomb Cambodian military targets in July was the first time it had used fighter jets in combat in three decades. It was one factor that brought the five-day border war to a halt — Thailand has a much better-equipped military than Cambodia, which has virtually no operational air force.
The ensuing cease-fire was brokered by the United States and Malaysia. In October, Thailand and Cambodia agreed to let observers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, monitor the truce. On Monday, Cambodia said it planned to request an Asean investigation into the latest hostilities.
Sun Narin contributed reporting from Phnom Penh and Kittiphum Sringammuang contributed reporting from Bangkok.
Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region.
The post Thailand Launches Airstrikes on Cambodia in New Wave of Violence appeared first on New York Times.
