More than 100,000 displaced as Thailand-Cambodia border clashes enter second day

At least 16 people have been killed, and tens of thousands have been displaced, as Thailand and Cambodia remain engaged in their worst fighting in more than a decade, exchanging heavy artillery fire across their disputed border, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.

- 

Acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has told reporters the border fighting “could develop into war”.

The death toll in Thailand rose to 15 early on Friday, 14 of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry. One civilian has been reported killed in Cambodia.

The outbreak of fighting between the South Asian neighbours follows weeks of tensions which have been brewing since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation on the border. In February, a dispute over Prasat Ta Moan Thon, a Khmer temple close to the border in Thailand, intensified when Thai police stopped Cambodian tourists from singing their national anthem at the contested site.

Thailand's Interior Ministry said more than 138,000 people and 428 hospital patients, who were evacuated from regions bordering Cambodia, had been moved to shelters. On the other side of the border, more than 20,000 Cambodians have been evacuated from the northern border province of Preah Vihear, according to a local media report.

Each side blames the other for launching the first attack, as they have cut diplomatic relations with each other.

Thailand said it had closed all border crossings with Cambodia.

Armed fighting broke out on Thursday morning near the disputed, ancient Prasat Ta Moan Thom Temple in Surin province, Thailand, very close to the border with Cambodia, where tensions have been running high in recent weeks.