Thailand launches F-16 airstrikes on Cambodia amid border clashes
'We have used air power against military targets as planned,' Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon told reporters. Thailand also closed its border with Cambodia. Cambodia's defence ministry said the jets dropped two bombs on a road, and that it 'strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia'.
The skirmishes came after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia late on Wednesday and said it would expel Cambodia's envoy in Bangkok, after a second Thai soldier in the space of a week lost a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently in the disputed area.
Thailand's health minister said in an update this morning that one military personnel and 11 civilians have been killed in the clashes. Thai residents including children and the elderly ran to shelters built of concrete and fortified with sandbags and car tires in the Surin border province. 'How many rounds have been fired? It's countless,' an unidentified woman told the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) while hiding in the shelter as gunfire and explosions were heard intermittently in the background.
Cambodia's foreign ministry said Thailand's air strikes were 'unprovoked' and called on its neighbour to withdraw its forces and 'refrain from any further provocative actions that could escalate the situation'. For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 508-mile land border, which has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery in 2011. Tensions were reignited in May following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, which escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and now has triggered armed clashes. The clashes began early on Thursday near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple along the eastern border between Cambodia and Thailand, around 360 km from the Thai capital Bangkok.
'Artillery shell fell on people's homes,' Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, district chief of Kabcheing in Surin province, told Reuters, describing the firing by the Cambodian side. 'Two people have died,' he said, adding that district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer locations. Thailand's military said Cambodia deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops with heavy weapons to an area near the temple.
Cambodian troops opened fire and two Thai soldiers were wounded, a Thai army spokesperson said, adding Cambodia had used multiple weapons, including rocket launchers. A spokesperson for Cambodia's defence ministry, however, said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defence. Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the situation was delicate. 'We have to be careful,' he told reporters. 'We will follow international law.'
An attempt by Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra to resolve the recent tensions via a call with Cambodia's influential former Prime Minister Hun Sen, the contents of which were leaked, kicked off a political storm in Thailand, leading to her suspension by a court. Hun Sen said in a Facebook post that two Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from the Thai military.
Thailand this week accused Cambodia of placing landmines in a disputed area that injured three soldiers. Phnom Penh denied the claim and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered a mine left behind from decades of war. Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining groups. But Thailand maintains landmines have been placed at the border area recently, which Cambodia has described as baseless allegations.
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The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
My daughter, 19, got hooked on ‘zombie vapes' – then she plunged to her death from our home… my warning to parents
STANDING over his only child as she retched uncontrollably, Delfard Tay knew his daughter's addiction had spiralled out of control. And when he replayed haunting footage of Shermaine, 19, staggering like a zombie moments before plunging to her death, he knew exactly what was to blame. 16 16 The sight of her eerie behaviour was a familiar one, Delfard, from Singapore, told The Sun, as he detailed how Shermaine had been addicted to "zombie vapes" for nearly a year before she died. The drug-laced vapes are more commonly known as Kpods in Southeast Asia - and are said to have earned this name as they are often spiked with ketamine. Swarms of teens have been seen in public in a 'zombie-like' state after using the trending devices, with some users as young as 13 years old, shocking reports claim. The alarming craze is rampant in Singapore - a nation with some of the world's toughest drug laws, where certain offences can mean the death penalty. And even the UK is seeing a surge in drug-laced vapes - with substances ranging from Xylazine, also known as "Tranq", Spice and even ketamine reportedly found inside. A bombshell study last year found one in six vapes seized from schoolkids in England were tainted with "zombie drug" Spice. As a child, Shermaine was "always full of light... the kind of little girl who could walk into a room and instantly lift the mood", Delfard remembers. She had big dreams of becoming a TikTok influencer, since she wanted to "make people smile and feel less alone". But after being introduced to "zombie vapes" by pals, Shermaine was immediately hooked, her dad says. Her addiction became so bad that on one occasion she filled "the whole house" with vomit. My daughter, 19, got hooked on 'zombie vapes' - I watched as she plunged to her death… this is my warning to parents The dad-of-one recounted the devastating 4am call he received from his aunt on September 22 last year. Shermaine had been found dead at the foot of their apartment block. After his daughter's death, Delfard, 43, watched the home's security cameras and saw Shermaine "shaking" while stumbling out the door in her final moments. The footage left him in no doubt she was "under the influence" of Kpods when she plunged to her death from the 18th floor of their building in Tanjong Pagar. Delfard told The Sun: "She said that the police were knocking at the door and asking for my daughter, Shermaine Tay. "The inspector took over and told me that my daughter is gone." He added: "I asked him, 'what do you mean by gone?' "[The inspector] didn't say much, but he said that her phone was found on 18th floor, so most probably she dropped from there. "I was shocked. I stayed there for half an hour, not doing anything." Telltale signs Shermaine's fall was ruled a suicide by authorities - despite cops not finding any notes as evidence for this on her phone or nearby. And Delfard is convinced that her death was linked to months of abusing the illegal vapes. Asked about how he was sure of this, the dad said: "Because I checked back the cameras on that day." Her disturbing behaviour was a "symptom" of her being high on Kpods, he says. He added: "The last I saw of her, [she was] shaking going out of the house, that's why I confirmed that she was under the influence." 16 The logistics manager compared Shermaine's appearance on the day she died to how she had been acting in the days leading up to her death. He detailed how he and his daughter had argued just days before she fell - when she vomited profusely. "I had a quarrel with her and I asked her if she had taken any drugs, and she said no," he said. "I looked back at the camera, she was convulsing, shaking... repeating the same thing over and over and over again. "And on the day itself, I re-tracked the footage - it's the same thing." Social service agencies in Singapore have reported swathes of youngsters who have experienced similar symptoms while using Kpods, Channel News Asia reported. Common effects of using Kpods include "zombie-like" disorientation, confusion, aggression, unsteady walking, and sudden collapse, according to rehab centre Addictions Recovery Singapore. They said: "We have seen evidence that vape liquids can also be clandestinely laced with ketamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and synthetic cannabinoids - often unknown to the user. "At the forefront of this trend is a new street term: Kpods." The surge in Kpod use has gripped Singapore - and victims' loved ones have taken to social media or local news outlets to tell of their frightening experiences. Horrifying reports of drug-laced vapes have also rocked Britain - with claims some kids were left suffering seizures and chilling personality changes. In one particularly shocking case in Singapore, a 56-year-old woman told how she was forced to restrain her 27-year-old son as he tried to leap out a window while high on Kpods in June, Shin Min Daily News reported. The mum explained that her child had been hooked on "zombie vapes" since October 2024. 16 Although Delfard tried tirelessly to persuade his daughter to give up her dangerous habit, most of these conversations ended in arguments followed by days of silence. He said: "I asked her, 'why do you want to do this?' "Singapore is a very strict country with drugs, and once you get caught you will be either under urine [drug test] regime or go to a drug rehabilitation centre, or prison." Shermaine told her dad that when she had to do urine drug tests the results would fail to show any traces of them in her system. This is because many Kpods contain etomidate - a fast-acting anaesthetic used in hospitals. Kpod sellers boast about the substance being undetectable in urine tests - giving buyers a false sense of safety that they won't face harsh punishments in Singapore. Operating on sites such as Telegram, dealers also encourage young people to risk buying them as etomidate is classified as a poison under Singapore's Poisons Act - and not as a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act. But authorities are set to change the rules. Shermaine was doing urine drug tests once a week, according to her dad, but the doctors never flagged any drugs in her system. When asked if he knew if his daughter had unknowingly consumed ketamine from her the vapes in the lead-up to her death, he said: "I just don't know." The Kpod crisis has also affected Delfard's friend, who admitted to him that he was using Kpods. 16 16 16 Describing his pal's zombie-like behaviour while using the vape, he said: "He just cannot stand well, and his leg is shaking." Delfard said he also witnessed another person "drop backwards" while smiling after using them. "Mostly teenagers are using these," he revealed, adding that Kpods were "a common thing now in Singapore". He said: "I think some parents still don't know what this Kpod thing is about. They just maybe think that for children it is normal [for them to be] vaping." But during government tests of 100 seized vapes, one in three Kpods were found to contain etomidate, Singapore's Health Minister said on July 20. Although the devices are usually used to deliver nicotine, the minister said they can be "a delivery device for a range of substances, from nicotine to psychoactive substances such as etomidate, to hardcore drugs that are illegal". Addressing the "invisible crisis", Delfard warned: "The government need to have help centres for teenagers. "But more of it is actually individual parents - they need to know about their children's life, they need to look into the roots of it." Delfard's advice to other parents is to show their children love - and to be involved in their lives. He continued: "At the end of day it's their parents - do they show love? Do they really care about their children? "Talk more about love with our children. Care about them. Look into their life. What's the root problem? Why are they taking this?" The grieving dad added: "For me... I neglected her. I wanted to prove to her by example that we don't need to go to vices in order to survive. "We don't need to take to take drugs to escape. But I'm a bit too late." As a former addict, Delfard knows the harsh reality. "I've been a drug addict before... I know how hard it is to come out of it," he said. "Once they get addicted, it's not like they don't want to come out of it." Delfard said he likes to remember Shermaine's big heart. "She had a strong sense of fairness; she would stand up for her friends, share her toys without hesitation, and notice if someone was feeling left out," he said. "I saw in her a mix of creativity, confidence, and kindness that made me believe she could inspire others." The Singaporean government has announced plans to list etomidate as a Class C drug following soaring reports of laced Kpods. 16 16
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Explosion heard near the Mazzeh area of Damascus in Syria, no casualties
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Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
Trans woman smuggled drugs to fund gender reassignment surgery
A transgender drug smuggler attempted to bring £800,000 of cannabis into Britain to fund gender reassignment surgery. Keira Borrett, who was born male but identifies as a woman, agreed to smuggle 26kg of the drug from Thailand in exchange for £10,000 for gender reassignment surgery. Borrett, 46, was jailed for 18 months at Isleworth Crown Court after admitting the offence. The court heard Borrett was discovered with two suitcases filled with vacuum-sealed packs of herbal cannabis at Heathrow Airport in May. Sahra Ali, prosecuting, said Borrett agreed to smuggle the cases for the five-figure sum after meeting a man from Essex in a Bangkok bar during a birthday holiday. The smuggler told police that the pair had a conversation about 'sex change operations and how expensive they were' before two associates of the man proposed Borrett taking two suitcases back to Britain. The 'very heavy' bags were dropped off by men in an SUV before Borrett flew back to Britain on May 23. The men gave instructions to take the bags to a hotel where they would be picked up and the cash handed over. 'She was not under any duress, she did this willingly,' Ms Ali told the court. 'There was an expectation of significant financial advance.' The court heard that Borrett, from Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, claimed to not have known what was in the bags or inspected their contents. Since being arrested, Borrett has been held on remand at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, a male prison in west London. Sebastian Cox, defending, said Borrett should be spared a prison sentence after being forced to 'detransition', stop using female pronouns and wear male clothing at Wormwood Scrubs. 'Every day in prison has been harder for her given her identity,' he said. Mr Cox also interrupted Ms Ali to ask that she use female pronouns when referring to Borrett. 'Miss Borrett identifies as a woman and I'd be grateful if you could address her as such,' he said. 'A very silly decision' Mr Cox admitted that Borrett had shown a 'lack of judgment' by smuggling the drugs but said it was 'out of character' and an 'isolated incident'. 'The offer of money and knowing what it could have done for her life,' he said. 'She made a very silly decision. She is remorseful in the extreme knowing the impact this has had on her family and friends.' But the court was told that Borrett had also visited Thailand a few months earlier. Handing down the 18-month sentence, Recorder Kate Aubrey-Johnson said: 'Although you say it was an impulsive decision, the fact that you had travelled to Thailand before makes me wonder how much credibility I can give to that. 'This is an offence that is prevalent. We know that criminals target individuals to act as couriers. 'As cannabis has been made legal in other parts of the world; it means these criminal operations are now increasingly looking to bring drugs into the UK.'
