- Thailand curfew covers five districts in Trat province
- Cambodia accuses Thailand of hitting civilian infrastructure.
- Thailand open to diplomatic solution: Defense Ministry
Thailand announced a curfew in the country’s southeastern Trat province on Sunday as fighting with Cambodia spread to coastal areas of a disputed border region, two days after US President and future peacemaker Donald Trump said the sides had agreed to stop.
The Southeast Asian neighbors have resorted to arms repeatedly this year since a Cambodian soldier was killed in a skirmish in May, reigniting a conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
“Overall, there have been clashes continuously” since Cambodia reiterated its openness to a ceasefire on Saturday, Thai Defense Ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said at a news conference in Bangkok after the curfew was announced.
Thailand is open to a diplomatic solution, but “Cambodia must first end the hostility before it can negotiate,” he said.
Thai forces said Saturday they destroyed a bridge Cambodia used to deliver heavy weapons and other equipment to the region and launched an operation targeting prepositioned artillery in Cambodia’s coastal Koh Kong province.
Cambodia has accused Thailand of hitting civilian infrastructure.
Thailand’s curfew covers five districts in Koh Kong’s neighboring Trat province, excluding the tourist islands of Koh Chang and Koh Kood. The military had previously imposed a curfew in the eastern province of Sakeo, which remains in effect.
Thailand and Cambodia have exchanged heavy weapons fire at several points along their 817-kilometer (508-mile) border since Monday, in some of the most intense fighting since a five-day clash in July that ended with mediation by Trump and Malaysia.
Trump said he spoke with Acting Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Friday, and said they agreed to “cease all shooting.”
On Saturday, Anutin vowed to continue fighting “until we no longer feel any danger or threat to our land and our people.”
A White House spokesperson later said Trump hoped all sides would honor their commitments and that “he would hold anyone accountable if necessary to end the killings and ensure lasting peace.”
