Thailand’s military has launched a new offensive against Cambodia to “reclaim sovereign territory”, spurning mediation efforts including that of United States President Donald Trump.
Violence between the two Southeast Asian nations continued on Sunday, a day after Phnom Penh announced that it was shutting all of its crossings with Thailand, its northern neighbour.
The conflict stems from a long-running dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) shared border. Fighting has left at least 25 soldiers and civilians dead, and displaced over half a million people on both sides.
The newspaper Matichon Online quoted a Royal Thai Navy spokesman, Rear Admiral Parach Rattanachaiyapan, as saying that its forces “launched a military operation to reclaim Thai sovereign territory” in an area of the coastal province of Trat.
“The operation began in the early morning hours with heavy clashes, conducted under the principles of self-defence according to international law and the preservation of national sovereignty,” Rattanachaiyapan told the Thai newspaper.
The Thai military said it has “successfully controlled and reclaimed the area, expelling all opposing forces”.
The public television channel Thai PBS also reported that the country’s military “planted the Thai national flag” after “driving out all opposing forces” in the area.
Thailand’s TV 3 Morning News quoted the military as saying that, as of early Sunday, the country’s “army, Navy and Air Force are continuing with [their] operations” along the border.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump claimed that a ceasefire had been agreed to halt the deadly fighting between Thailand and Cambodia.
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