Thailand F-16 jet deployed against Cambodian forces as border clash escalates

Thailand’s military said Cambodia deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops with heavy weapons to an area near the temple.

Cambodian troops opened fire and two Thai soldiers were wounded, a Thai army spokesperson said, adding Cambodia had used multiple weapons, including rocket launchers.

A spokesperson for Cambodia’s defence ministry, however, said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defence.

Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the situation was delicate. “We have to be careful,” he told reporters. “We will follow international law.”

An attempt by now-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to resolve the recent tensions via a call with Cambodia’s influential former Prime Minister Hun Sen, the contents of which were leaked, kicked off a political storm in Thailand, leading to her suspension by a court.

Hun Sen said in a Facebook post that two Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from the Thai military.

Thailand this week accused Cambodia of placing landmines in a disputed area that injured three soldiers. Phnom Penh denied the claim and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered a mine left behind from decades of war.

Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining groups.

But Thailand maintains landmines have been placed at the border area recently, which Cambodia has described as baseless allegations.