At least 33 people have been killed and more than 168,000 forced to flee their homes in Thailand and Cambodia – as Donald Trump says both countries have agreed to immediate ceasefire talks.
Cambodian authorities reported 12 new deaths on Saturday, bringing its toll to 13, while Thai officials said a soldier was killed, raising the number of deaths to 20 – mostly civilians.
New flashpoints emerged on Saturday more than 100 km (60 miles) from other conflict points along the long-contested border.
There were clashes in the early morning in the neighbouring Thai coastal province of Trat and Cambodia’s Pursat Province, both sides said.
Later on Saturday, the US president said that the leaders of both countries had agreed to meet for immediate talks on ending the three-day-long conflict.
Posting on Truth Social while on a state visit to the UK, Mr Trump said he had spoken to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thailand’s acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai on ending fighting.
He also threatened to suspend trade agreement talks, and said: “They are also looking to get back to the ‘Trading Table’ with the United States, which we think is inappropriate to do until such time as the fighting STOPS.”
In a post on Facebook, Mr Wechayachai thanked Mr Trump and said Thailand “agrees in principle to have a ceasefire in place” – but added that he “would like to see sincere intention from the Cambodian side”.
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Mr Trump’s intervention came after the UN Security Council unanimously called on both sides to show restraint and resolve the dispute peacefully on Friday evening, a council diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said earlier that Thailand had launched “a deliberate, unprovoked, and unlawful military attack” but Mr Wechayachai said Bangkok had exercised the “utmost restraint and patience in the face of [Phnom Penh’s] provocations and aggression”.
Cambodia’s information minister Neth Pheaktra said on Saturday that the clashes had forced 10,865 Cambodian families – 37,635 people – in three border provinces to evacuate, while Thai officials said more than 131,000 people had fled their border villages.
Villages around Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province were largely deserted, as people loaded their belongings on homemade tractors or sheltered in makeshift underground bunkers, covering them with wood, tarpaulin and zinc sheets to shield themselves from shelling.
Several hundred residents went to a remote Buddhist temple where plastic tents were set up under the trees.
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Civilians killed in Cambodia-Thailand clashes
There have been frequent flare-ups along the 500-mile (800 km) frontier the two nations share, and 20 people died in the last serious clashes in 2011.
Tensions rose again in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a skirmish and escalated further when a land mine wounded five Thai soldiers on Wednesday.
The situation grew into a full-blown diplomatic crisis as Bangkok closed the border and expelled the Cambodian ambassador.
Both sides reinforced their troops on the border, and clashes broke out the following day.
On Friday, the Thai military reported clashes in multiple areas along the border, including near the ancient Ta Muen Thom temple claimed by both sides.
