Renewed clashes broke out on the Cambodia-Thailand border on Thursday, with combat reported near centuries-old temples, just ahead of a planned phone call by U.S. President Donald Trump to the leaders of both nations. At least 15 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed in the escalating conflict, according to officials.
The fighting has forced more than half a million people, mostly in Thailand, to flee their homes. Jets, tanks, and drones have been deployed in the contested border region, where both Cambodia and Thailand dispute the colonial-era demarcation of their roughly 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier. Both nations claim a number of historic temples within the disputed territory.
This week’s clashes are the deadliest since July, when five days of fighting killed dozens before a fragile truce was brokered with the intervention of President Trump. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Trump said he expected to speak on Thursday with the Thai and Cambodian leaders to demand a halt to the renewed hostilities.
Both sides have blamed each other for reigniting the conflict, which has now expanded into five provinces across Thailand and Cambodia. In Thailand’s northeast, hundreds of evacuated families sought shelter in a university building in Surin city, transformed into an emergency refuge. Local residents, including farmers, described the disruption to their lives and livelihoods. Rat, a 61-year-old farmer who fled with her family of eight, told AFP: “I just want to go home and farm again. Every time the fighting starts, it feels like life gets paused all over again.”
In Cambodia’s northwestern Oddar Meanchey province, AFP journalists reported hearing artillery blasts from the direction of disputed temples since Wednesday dawn. Cambodia’s Defence Ministry claimed that Thai forces initiated an attack early Thursday, shelling the Khnar Temple area. On the Thai side, the military imposed an overnight curfew in parts of Sa Kaeo province, and reported that Cambodian rockets landed near Phanom Dong Rak Hospital in Surin province—an area struck during July’s fighting.
Authorities estimate that more than 101,000 people have been evacuated in Cambodia, while over 400,000 civilians in Thailand have sought shelter elsewhere. Earlier this year, the United States, China, and Malaysia, as chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, helped broker a ceasefire in July. Trump later supported a follow-up joint declaration, highlighting new trade deals with both nations after they agreed to extend the truce, though Thailand suspended the agreement the following month.
Amid the ongoing conflict, the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO has called for the protection of cultural heritage sites. The agency provided all parties with the geographical coordinates of World Heritage sites and nationally significant locations to prevent potential damage. Historical clashes over the region date back to 2008, when military confrontations erupted near a 900-year-old temple along the border. Sporadic violence between 2008 and 2011 resulted in dozens of deaths and tens of thousands displaced.
The renewed hostilities underscore the fragile nature of peace along the Cambodia-Thailand border, with cultural landmarks, civilian lives, and regional stability hanging in the balance as international attention turns once again to the conflict.
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