The Thai government said a rocket attack from Cambodia killed a 63-year-old villager. It is the first civilian death to be a direct result of fighting that has occurred over the past week along the border between the two Southeast Asian countries.
Both countries confirmed that large-scale fighting continued Sunday, following a skirmish on Dec. 7 that left two Thai soldiers wounded.
Both sides have been fighting over long-standing competing claims to swathes of border land, some of which contain the ruins of centuries-old temples.
Officials say more than two dozen people on both sides of the border have been killed in fighting in the past week and more than half a million have been forced from their homes.
Damaged house in Sisaket province, Thailand (Sakchai Lalit/AP)
Associated Press reporters arrived at the site of Sunday's rocket crash in the Kantaralak district of Sisaket province about 10 minutes after the impact. They witnessed the man's body, completely bandaged, being placed on a stretcher and taken to an ambulance.
A house was burning a couple of hundred meters away, and village volunteers tried to put out the fire with buckets of water. A fragment of what is believed to be the same rocket embedded itself in a nearby road.
The victim, identified as Don Patchapan, was killed in the middle of a residential area near the school, according to a Thai army statement.
Thai government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat condemned Cambodia for deliberately targeting civilian areas, saying the action was “cruel and inhumane.”
Members of a Thai rescue team carry a body into a vehicle after a Cambodian artillery strike in Sisaket province (Sakchai Lalit/AP)
Thailand has previously reported civilian deaths during the renewed conflict, but most already had serious health problems and died during the evacuation.
Cambodia has deployed truck-mounted BM-21 missile launchers with a range of 19–25 miles (30–40 km). Each can fire up to 40 missiles at once, but cannot be precisely targeted. They mostly landed in areas where most people had already been evacuated.
Thai authorities say Cambodia fires thousands of missiles almost every day. Meanwhile, Thailand carried out airstrikes with its fighter jets and Cambodia said bombing continued on Sunday. Both sides used drones for surveillance and bomb delivery.
Residents of another village in Kantaralaka said several houses there were damaged by rocket fire on Saturday.
The Thai military acknowledged that 16 troops died in the fighting, and Sunday estimated that at least 221 Cambodian soldiers had died.
People take shelter at Wat Prasat Shrakkandal, Banteay Menchey province, Cambodia, after fleeing their homes (Heng Sinith/AP)
Cambodia has called the Thai death toll misinformation but has not yet acknowledged any military casualties. At least 11 civilians were reported killed and more than six dozen wounded.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet sent a message to his people on Sunday, writing on social media that he was proud to see his nation's strength “in this situation where our country is facing difficulties due to aggression from neighboring countries.”
The new fighting has derailed a ceasefire proposed by US President Donald Trump that ended five days of fighting in July. It was brokered by Malaysia and implemented under pressure from Trump, who threatened to revoke trade privileges if Thailand and Cambodia did not agree. This was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia, which Trump attended.
Trump announced on Friday that the two countries had agreed to renew the ceasefire, but Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul denied any commitment and Cambodia said it continued to fight in self-defense.
A Thai Navy warship in the Gulf of Thailand joined the fray on Saturday morning, exchanging fire with guns based in Cambodia's southwestern Koh Kong province.
Each side accused the other of starting an exchange of views on a new front.
