Arya News - Three Thai civilians have been killed while fleeing Cambodian strikes.
Three Thai civilians have been killed while fleeing Cambodian strikes.
The deaths on Thursday are the first civilian fatalities reported by Thailand since fighting between the two neighbours returned on Monday over a disputed border, in the most serious bout of violence since July.
They died while being evacuated during the air strikes. Nine soldiers have also died, with more than 120 injured.
Meanwhile, Cambodia said 10 locals, including a baby, had been killed and 60 wounded, without releasing data on fatalities within the armed forces.
The renewed violence – ostensibly over the demarcation of a 500-mile (800km) frontier – has triggered international concern, with Pope Leo XIV among those to call for peace. He told an audience at the Vatican he was “deeply saddened” by news of the conflict.
Thai residents take shelter in Buriram province - Sakchai Lalit/AP
Residents are evacuated in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia - Heng Sinith/AP
But US president Donald Trump, who helped broker a ceasefire deal that delivered a fragile peace, alongside Malaysia, has continued his bullish narrative that he will solve the crisis.
“I think I can get them to stop fighting,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I think I’m scheduled to speak to them tomorrow.”
The president also repeated his claim of solving eight wars since returning to the White House: “Every once in a while, one will flame up again and I have to put out that little flame.”
Yet the playbook Washington used in July may not work now, with Bangkok insisting it is a matter for the two nations to resolve and bristling at his strategy of tying peace to tariff deals .
Credit: X
“He has good intentions to see peace but we have to explain what the problems are and why it turned out this way,” said Anutin Charnvirakul, the Thai prime minister.
“No one wants conflict, especially with neighbouring countries. But Thailand is very confident that it has been invaded. Therefore, it is necessary to safeguard the country’s independence and sovereignty.”
On the other side, Cambodia’s interior ministry claimed Thailand has committed “brutal acts of aggression” against civilian targets including schools and temples, which Bangkok denies.
It also said its neighbour’s shelling and F-16 strikes had “intensified”. Cambodia also withdrew its competitors from the South East Asia Games, which are being held in Bangkok this week.
The exact trigger for the renewed fighting is still not clear, though tensions had been rising since Thai soldiers were injured by landmines and a small skirmish was reported on Sunday.
But Mathis Lohatepanont, a Thai political analyst, wrote on Thursday that there are “domestic calculations in both countries that could lead to more hawkish behaviour”.
Speculators have pointed to a pattern where the conflict appears to flare after the Thai military takes action against the Cambodian tycoons connected to the country’s sprawling criminal scam centres.
Another theory is that Hun Sen, Cambodia’s de facto leader, is trying to use his playbook of leaking dirt on Thailand’s new prime minister Mr Charnvirakul, having effectively brought down his predecessor. So far, Mr Charnvirakul has managed to side-step this attack.
People queue for food aid at a school in Surin, which has been turned into an evacuation centre - Rungroj Yongrit/EPA/Shutterstock
Instead, he’s ramped up the rhetoric about defending Thai sovereignty, exploiting rampant nationalism at home. This is Mr Charnvirakul’s interest – it distracts from widespread criticism of his handling of major flooding ahead of elections in the new year.
Now, the Thai military appears set on teaching Cambodia a lesson, with army chiefs suggesting they have set new targets to wipe out Phnom Penh’s military capabilities – including Chinese-made weapons.
Yet for hundreds of thousands of people in evacuation shelters on the border, the renewed fighting has once again put life on hold.
“I just want to go home and farm again,” Rat, a 61-year-old farmer who declined to give her last name, told AFP, inside a university building in Surin city. “Every time the fighting starts, it feels like life gets paused all over again.”
Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.