Cambodia accused Thailand on Monday of striking deep inside its territory, bombing the province that is home to the centuries-old Angkor temples — the country’s top tourist draw — for the first time in a reignited border conflict.<\/p>\n
Five days of fighting in July killed dozens of people before a truce was brokered and then broken within months, part of a long-standing conflict rooted in the colonial-era demarcation of the countries’ 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.<\/p>\n
Renewed fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours this month has killed at least 31 people, including soldiers and civilians, and displaced around 800,000, officials said.<\/p>\n
Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fighting, claiming self-defence and trading accusations of attacks on civilians.<\/p>\n
Cambodia, which is outgunned and outspent by Bangkok’s military, said Thai forces had expanded their attack “deep into” Cambodian territory on Monday.<\/p>\n
Cambodia’s defence ministry said in a statement that a Thai fighter jet had bombed “near a displaced civilians camp in the area of Srei Snam district, Siem Reap province”.<\/p>\n
The area is located less than a two-hour drive from the the Angkor temple complex and its top tourist attraction, the UNESCO heritage site Angkor Wat.<\/p>\n
Cambodia’s Information Minister Neth Pheaktra told AFP it was the “furthest that the Thai military has struck into Cambodian territory” during the renewed clashes — more than 70 kilometres (43 miles) from the border and far from a disputed area.<\/p>\n
The minister said it was also the first time Thailand’s military had bombed areas of Siem Reap province.<\/p>\n
The bombing forced hundreds of already displaced families to flee an evacuation site, he added.<\/p>\n
– Tourists ‘worry very much’ –<\/p>\n
Cambodia relies heavily on its tourism sector, which, as in many nations, is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic years.<\/p>\n
Foreign tourist arrivals to Cambodia last year topped 6.7 million, the highest annual total on record, tourism ministry data showed.<\/p>\n
But arrivals from July to September this year were down by about a third compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Monthly ticket sales to the Angkor archaeological park were down at least 17 percent year-on-year from June to November, according to data from operator Angkor Enterprise.<\/p>\n
Chhay Sivlin, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, told AFP that some tourists who planned to visit Cambodia via a Thai border crossing have cancelled plans or changed routes to go through neighbouring Vietnam or Laos.<\/p>\n
She said the reports of bombing in Siem Reap province made “some tourists who have booked their trips already worry very much”.<\/p>\n
Some have cancelled travel plans while others have asked to delay their trip, she added.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump, who intervened in the conflict earlier this year, said last week the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire beginning Saturday night.<\/p>\n
But fighting raged over the weekend and into Monday, and Bangkok denied Trump’s claim of a truce.<\/p>\n
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul — who dissolved parliament last week, paving the way for elections next year — posted on Facebook on Sunday that his government would keep up the fight.<\/p>\n
Military officials on both sides said clashes and strikes along the border were ongoing on Monday.<\/p>\n
suy-tp\/sco\/ami<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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