(Al Jazeera Media Network) A Thai F-16 jet has bombed targets in Cambodia, as a simmering border dispute and diplomatic meltdown rapidly ignited into fierce clashes, bombing and shelling that have killed at least 13 civilians and a soldier in Thailand.
Thailand and Cambodia blamed each other for the new outbreak of fighting that erupted early on Thursday in an area near the disputed Ta Moan Thom Temple, located in a border area in northwestern Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Fighting then spread to at least six areas along the border, Thai military official Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said, leading Thailand’s military to close the border between the countries.
Amid regional calls for mediation, Thailand’s caretaker Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told a news conference that fighting had to stop before there could be any negotiations. He said there had been no declaration of war and that the fighting was not spreading to other provinces.
Thailand’s health ministry said that 13 civilians and one soldier had been killed, as Cambodian forces fired heavy weapons into Thai territory. At least 32 civilians and 14 soldiers had been wounded.
Health Minister Thepsuthin Somsak told reporters that Cambodia’s actions, including an attack near a hospital that had been evacuated ahead of the strikes, should be considered war crimes.
Six of the civilian victims were killed, and two others wounded, in shelling near a petrol station in Ban Phue, Kantharalak district, Sisaket province, about 20 km from the border, the Thai military said in a statement.
Cambodia has made no statement about any casualties on its side.
The fighting has led to the evacuation of at least 40,000 civilians from more than 80 villages near the border to safer locations, a district official in Surin province told the Reuters news agency, as residents fled to bomb shelters built of concrete and fortified with sandbags and car tires.
