Thailand scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia yesterday after artillery volleys from both sides killed at least 11 civilians, as border tension boiled over into rare armed conflict between the Southeast Asian countries.
Both blamed each other for starting a morning clash at a disputed area of the border, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling in at least six locations 209km apart along a frontier where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century.
Thailand positioned six F-16 fighter jets in an uncommon combat deployment, one of which was mobilised to strike a Cambodian military target, among measures Cambodia’s foreign ministry called ‘reckless and brutal military aggression’.
Thailand’s military said the use of air power was to strike with precision.
The worst fighting between the countries in 13 years came after Thailand on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh and expelled Cambodia’s envoy, in response to a second Thai soldier losing a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently by rival troops, an accusation Cambodia called baseless.
The US, a long-time treaty ally of Thailand, called for an immediate end to hostilities.
“We are ... gravely concerned by the escalating violence along the Thailand Cambodia border, and deeply saddened by reports of harm to civilians,” the State Department’s deputy spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, told a regular news briefing.
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