A Thai Gripen fighter jet destroyed a Cambodian military target after dozens of Thai villages had been evacuated because of Cambodian shelling.
Cambodia has requested an urgent meeting with the UN, and Thailand’s embassy in Phnom Penh has told Thais in Cambodia to leave immediately.
At least nine Thai civilians, including an eight-year-old boy, have been killed in armed conflict near the Cambodian border, the Thai army reports.
At least 14 people across three provinces in Thailand, including a five-year-old, have been injured as a result of the fighting, the army said in a statement.
The Thai army said the most casualties occurred in Si Sa Ket province, where six people were killed after shots were fired at a gas station.
Cambodian artillery shelling on Thai homes also resulted in other casualties, said a district chief in Surin province.
Smoke was seen at a Thailand gas station amid the escalating border clash with Cambodia.
Relations between the South-East Asian neighbours have deteriorated sharply since an armed confrontation in May that killed a Cambodian soldier.
Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation.
Earlier today, Thailand deployed Gripen fighter jet against Cambodian forces and destroyed a military target, the Thai army said.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said the jets dropped two bombs on a road, and that it “strongly condemned the reckless and brutal military aggression”.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet requested the UN Security Council convene an “urgent meeting … to stop Thailand’s aggression”.
Two Cambodian provinces came under shelling from Thailand’s military, according to Cambodia’s influential former premier Hun Sen.
Countries accuse each other
Both militaries accused the other side of firing the first shots in armed clashes along a disputed area of their border.
A Cambodian government source told AFP that violence broke out again on Thursday morning near two temples on the border between the Thai province of Surin and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey.
A spokesperson for Cambodia’s defence ministry, however, said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defence.
The Thai army said Cambodian soldiers opened fire on them near their post east of the Ta Muen temple.
The neighbours are locked in a bitter spat over an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of both countries and Laos meet, and which is home to several ancient temples.
People sheltering with their belongings in a concrete bunker.
The row has dragged on for decades, flaring into bloody military clashes more than 15 years ago and again in May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a firefight.
Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades, called for calm in a Facebook post and urged Cambodians to place their trust in his country’s armed forces and government.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said “the situation requires careful handling, and we must act in accordance with international law”.
Thailand has been operating Gripen C/D since 2011. Last year, the RTAF chose Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen E/F to replace its oldest F-16A/B fighters, which were in service with the 102nd Squadron based in central Thailand. Saab’s Gripen was selected after a ten-month competitive evaluation against Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70/72. It won out because the RTAF said it met both the their tactical requirements and fit within the allocated budget.
After Brazil, Thailand, Colombia and Peru will become only the export customers for the Gripen E/F. The RTAF already operates 11 older JAS-39 Gripen C/Ds, acquired in the early 2010s.
Earlier in 2024, Saab had indicated a want to expand the market for the Gripen, looking to both the Philippines, Peru, Colombia and Thailand as prospective customers at the time with the potential to also expand to the Indian market.
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