Thailand confirmed that fighting continued in the border regions, without mentioning, however, the province of Siem Reap
Cambodia accused Thailand this Monday of bombing the province of Siem Reap, where the famous temples of Angkor are located, for the first time since border clashes resumed on December 7.
“The Thai army expanded the scope of its violent attack, using an F-16 fighter to drop two bombs near a camp for displaced civilians in the Srei Snam district,” the Cambodian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Thailand confirmed that fighting continued in the border regions, without mentioning, however, the province of Siem Reap.
The Srei Snam district is about 70 kilometers from the disputed border and less than an hour and a half drive from the Angkor Wat complex, a jewel of Khmer architecture and Cambodia’s main tourist attraction.
“Thailand violated international law by attacking civilians,” Cambodian Information Minister Pheaktra Neth told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Neth’s ministry shared a video that, according to the official, shows “students from a school in Srei Snam district fleeing after the Thai army dropped bombs near their school”.
In a new report, Cambodian authorities reported 12 deaths, all civilians, since the start of clashes between the two Southeast Asian neighbors, who dispute parts of the territory along the border.
Thailand, in turn, mourned the deaths of 16 people in total, including 15 soldiers and a civilian, killed by shrapnel from grenades.
The two countries accuse each other of having unleashed hostilities, which led to the evacuation of around 800,000 people from both sides of the border.
A first episode of violence caused 43 deaths in July, before a truce and the signing of a ceasefire agreement in October, which saw the intervention of the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday that the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to a truce after a phone call, but the Thai government denied this and fighting continued over the weekend.
