Fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops erupted early on 24 July after months of mounting tensions and quickly escalated to the most intense and deadly to date, with at least eleven civilians and one soldier killed in Thailand, and more than 30 wounded. Cambodia has yet to release casualty figures. 

Both sides say they acted in self-defence in fighting near Ta Muen Thom temple, in one of four areas where the border has not yet been demarcated due to longstanding territorial disputes. Clashes spread to at least eight locations across some 270 kilometres, from Ta Muen Thom in the west to the tri-border area with Laos in the east, including exchanges of artillery fire. Cambodia fired rockets that struck civilian areas, including a hospital in Surin province and a petrol station in Sisaket. Thailand launched at least two separate, unprecedented airstrikes by F-16 fighter jets against what it said were artillery and rocket batteries.

Bilateral relations have been on a downward spiral since 28 May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with Thai troops. Both sides say the other shot first. Tensions have simmered since, with border crossings closed and heated rhetoric from leaders on both sides. The day before the latest fighting, several Thai soldiers were wounded by a land mine, the second such incident in less than a week, prompting Bangkok to expel Cambodia’s ambassador and recall its own from Phnom Penh. 

Prospects for de-escalation are complicated by a messy feud between Cambodia’s Hun Sen and Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra, both former prime ministers and erstwhile “godbrothers”. Hun Sen is Cambodia’s senate president and father to Prime Minister Hun Manet, who took over the premiership in 2023 but lacks an independent base of support. Thaksin is father to Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who became prime minister last year but was recently suspended by the Constitutional Court pending its ruling over alleged ethics violations stemming from a leaked phone call she had on 15 June with Hun Sen. In the call, Paetongtarn sounded obsequious as she asked what was necessary to reduce border tensions, and implied that the Thai army was her “opposition”. Hun Sen has since taunted Thai leaders with threats of further damaging revelations and exacerbated existing distrust between Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party and the Thai military.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, current chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations, called on both countries to “stand down” and “try to enter into negotiation”. But the regional body will have its work cut out restraining both sides as leaders talk tough. Thailand’s acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, said talks with Cambodia cannot begin until the clashes stop. A statement from the Thai embassy in Cambodia said fighting was likely to “be prolonged and expand”. Hun Sen, for his part, posted that “the Cambodian army has no choice but to fight back and counterattack”, while Hun Manet requested an urgent UN Security Council meeting to halt what he called Thailand’s “aggression”.