11 Civilians Killed, Border Sealed As Thailand-Cambodia Dispute Escalates: Top Developments
11 civilians were killed on Thai soil in artillery strikes by Cambodian forces amid an escalating border dispute. Cambodia has yet to report any civilian casualties
Thailand-Cambodia Border Clash: Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia have flared into deadly violence, with at least 12 people killed on Thai soil, including a child and a soldier, heavy artillery fire, and both countries trading allegations of war crimes and sovereignty violations.
Here are the top developments from the border crisis:
Cambodian Shelling Kills 12 in Thailand, Including Child
Thailand's Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said 12 people, 11 civilians and one soldier, were killed in artillery strikes by Cambodian forces on Thursday. One of the civilians killed was a child. An additional 24 civilians and 7 soldiers were injured in the attack. Cambodia has not reported any casualties on its side so far.
Thai authorities said civilian areas, including a hospital, were directly targeted in the strikes. Somsak Thepsuthin called it 'an act that could be considered a war crime," demanding that Cambodia be held accountable.
Thailand announced a total closure of all border checkpoints with Cambodia. 'We have escalated the measures to level 4, which involves the complete closure of all border checkpoints along the Thai Cambodian border," said Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesperson for the Ad Hoc Centre for Thailand-Cambodia Border Situation.
Cambodia Urges UN To Convene
Cambodian PM Hun Manet sent an urgent letter to the UN Security Council, accusing Thailand of 'premeditated and deliberate attacks" and urging immediate intervention. He said Cambodia was forced to act in self-defence. Hun Manet added that these strikes came while Cambodia was actively pursuing peaceful and legal avenues to resolve border issues through bilateral and international mechanisms.
Landmines, Rockets And Civilian Strikes
Thailand accused Cambodia of planting landmines on its territory and firing rockets into civilian zones. Cambodian authorities have denied initiating the attacks and blamed Thailand for violating international law. Thailand warned it is 'prepared to intensify self-defence measures" if Cambodia continues its armed violations.
'The Royal Thai Government calls upon Cambodia to take responsibility for the incidents that have occurred, cease attacks against civilian and military targets, and stop all actions that violate Thailand's sovereignty," the Thai Foreign Ministry said.
Cambodia Condemns Thai Actions
The Cambodian foreign ministry condemned what it called Thailand's 'reckless and hostile act" in the 'strongest possible terms," characterising the strikes as unprovoked military aggression.
ASEAN, China Call For Calm
Malaysia, the current ASEAN chair, urged both countries to 'stand down" and begin talks. Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he will speak with the leaders of both countries by the end of the day, Reuters reported. Anwar told reporters: The least we can expect from them is to just stand down and hopefully to try and enter into negotiations.
China, a key ally of Cambodia, said it was 'deeply concerned" and vowed to play a 'fair and constructive role" in easing tensions.
Second Landmine Blast Injures Thai Soldiers
Thursday's strikes followed a landmine explosion on Wednesday that injured five Thai soldiers, one of whom lost a leg. Another blast on July 16 had already maimed a soldier, signalling rising hostilities even before the latest clashes.
Trade Bans, Diplomatic Fallout
Thailand had threatened to cut off electricity and internet to Cambodian border towns. In retaliation, Cambodia banned Thai fruits, vegetables, and TV dramas. Both sides have recalled diplomats, sharply downgrading bilateral ties.
What Is the Border Dispute About?
The current violence is rooted in a long-standing territorial dispute over the land around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site. While the International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, Thailand contests ownership of adjacent land.
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The 508-mile border was drawn during French colonial rule and remains poorly demarcated. Thailand does not recognise the ICJ's jurisdiction on much of the surrounding territory, keeping the conflict alive for decades.
A deadly clash in 2011 near the same site killed over 20. Tensions had already worsened in May this year after a Cambodian soldier was killed during a skirmish near the Emerald Triangle, where Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos meet. Since then, both militaries have reinforced troops, engaged in sabre-rattling, and downgraded diplomatic ties.
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First Published:
July 24, 2025, 14:59 IST
News world 11 Civilians Killed, Border Sealed As Thailand-Cambodia Dispute Escalates: Top Developments
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Eventually, this led to centuries of civil war over kingly succession that disrupted regional peace and governance. What followed were European attempts to capitalise on this instability. A century after the fall of Angkor, the Spanish and Portuguese led several misadventures on Cambodian soil. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the factions fighting for Khmer kingship sought the help of their neighbours — Vietnam and Siam (modern-day Thailand) — to support their claims. The Khmer kings at the turn of the nineteenth century, King Ang Eng and his successor Ang Chan, were both aided by the Siamese army and later crowned in Bangkok. In a turn of events, however, Chan sought help from Vietnam against his brother, who was vying for the throne. This led to a battle between Siam and Vietnam, fought in Cambodia. Vietnam won, with Emperor Ming Mang introducing a range of reformist policies designed to make Cambodia a Vietnamese political unit. The 1820s and 1830s were decades of Vietnamese hegemony – the capital city of Phnom Penh was isolated from the world, and visitors required Vietnamese permission to arrive via the Mekong. According to academic Sokhieng Au in Mixed Medicines: Health and Culture in French Colonial Cambodia (2011), the Khmer peasantry began to resent the Vietnamese. 'By 1840, Ming Mang was facing a countrywide revolt.' Au adds that incidentally, just before the outbreak of hostilities in Vietnam, 'Norodom [Cambodian ruler] had approached the French government with interest in establishing some sort of tributary alliance.' She notes that he viewed France as Siam or Vietnam, a strong power to play against the others. 'In this,' Au writes, 'he would be gravely mistaken.' Speaking with she summarised: 'For a couple of hundred years, Cambodia was a vassal state between Thailand and Vietnam, often playing one against the other. And one of the things Cambodian kings started doing was trying to get the same kind of vassalage or protection from some of the European powers that were mucking around in Southeast Asia. For instance, they approached Napoleon.' The French naturalist, Henri Mouhot, entered Cambodia through Kampot in June 1859. Mouhot found Cambodia's condition to be deplorable. The population, he noted, had been seriously reduced due to ongoing wars. Among the products he listed (tobacco, pepper, sugar, coffee, silk, and cotton), Mouhot was most interested in the cotton crop, argues academic Margaret Slocomb in An Economic History of Cambodia in the Twentieth Century (2010). This, according to Slocomb, 'might have supplemented French needs should the American Civil War interrupt trans-Atlantic trade.' Cambodian forests and the mountains containing gold, lead, copper, and iron also caught his attention. In 1860, during Mouhot's travels in the region, the Khmer king died. In the fight for succession, Siam took advantage and Cambodia succumbed once more. 'The head of the Catholic mission in Cambodia, Bishop Miche, urged French intervention to restore order,' says Slocomb. The French, however, were more interested in securing access to the Mekong, which would allow entry into southwest China. The French expedition for the Mekong set out from Saigon in June 1866 to find a route to the Chinese province of Yunnan. However, this would prove disappointing. Slocomb notes that 'The French ambition of 'establishing a dominion in the eastern peninsula of Asia that would go far to rival in wealth and power the empire which the British have founded in Hindustan' was dashed by the findings of the commission. Unlike the Ganges which had led the British 'to wide, rich, and populous countries in the interior,' the Mekong conducted the 'weary travellers within the jaws of unsoundable gorges, overhung by Alpine precipices … or loses itself in a labyrinth of islets, of weeds…' They thus turned to Cambodia, more by compulsion than choice. A member of the expedition, Louis de Carné, wrote: 'Cambodia is a country of magnificent natural resources, and has a noble river — the Mekong — flowing through its midst. It produces dye-woods, ebony, rice, cotton… 'all useless for want of enterprise and capital.' The French are anxious to supply these wants; and considering the position they hold, no doubt they will succeed in having their own way.' Thus, the French representative at the court of Oudong in Cambodia concluded a protectorate treaty in August 1863. From the signing of the 1863 treaty, French administrators began encroaching upon Norodom's powers. In 1884, according to Au, the French regional governor Charles Thomson 'forced the king to sign a treaty greatly expanding the power of the French protectorate over the country.' She asserts that the treaty practically turned Cambodia 'into a full-fledged colony.' The first article of the treaty, for instance, stated that the King would accept all administrative, judicial, and financial reforms that the Government of the Republic might deem useful for facilitating the accomplishment of its Protectorate. Article 3 noted that Cambodian officials would continue, under control of the French authorities, to administer the provinces except in the matter of taxes, customs, indirect taxes, public works. While Article 6 declared: Cambodia would carry the cost of the administration of the kingdom and the protectorate. Contrary to what the French anticipated, a countrywide revolt erupted after this treaty. The protectorate was forced to seek the assistance of Norodom to stop the revolts. Using both threats and incentives, the French representative persuaded the king to bring peace. The king did the needful, and French administrators temporarily vested him with powers. For the next two decades, the French remained helpless. With the death of Norodom in 1904, however, they became hopeful. Au noted in her interview that the ascension of his half-brother Sisowath, chosen by the French, increased colonial involvement in Khmer society. It was during the Sisowath years (1904-27) and those of his son Monivong (1927-41) that the French economic and political reach into the Cambodian countryside grew rapidly. By 1884, France had claimed the lower Mekong Delta. By 1893, it had obtained control of Laos, central Vietnam, and northern Vietnam, and proclaimed the five 'states' of Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina, Laos, and Tonkin as French Indochina. The résident supérieur du Cambodge (RSC) governed from the new capital city of Phnom Penh. Cambodia was further divided into several districts, each administered by a French representative, the district résident. 'Perhaps the most significant administrative reform of the Protectorate was the creation of the commune, khum…to form the administrative link between the moral law of the village with its selected chief… and the bureaucratic commands of the chauvay srok, the district chief,' says Slocomb. France was also to represent the country in its international affairs and advise on domestic policies, but domestic governance was to remain a native matter. 'In reality, the colonial government quickly encroached on all fronts in Cambodia: domestic, international, economic, and administrative,' concludes Au. The disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia was formally demarcated by the French in 1904. Charnvit Kasetsiri, Pou Sothirak, and Pavin Chachavalpongpun, in their jointly edited book, Preah Vihear: A Guide to the Thai-Cambodian Conflict and Its Solutions (2013), write: 'The force of colonial politics pressured Siam [Thailand] to conclude a treaty with France in 1907.' Consequently, Siam ceded the Cambodian territories of Battambang, Sisophon, and Siem Reap to the French. 'Generally speaking,' reckons Slocomb, 'the struggle for independence was not a widespread or mass movement.' King Norodom Sihanouk claimed that it was a series of diplomatic measures that won political and military independence for Cambodia in November 1953. According to the Constitution, 'Cambodia is a Kingdom with a King who shall rule according to the Constitution and to the principles of liberal democracy and pluralism. The Kingdom of Cambodia shall be independent, sovereign, peaceful, permanently neutral and non-aligned.' Scholars opine that French rule in Indochina suffered from inconsistencies. While the French Protectorate had a major impact on the founding institutions of modern Cambodia, 'this impact stopped short of the mass of the people, the villagers who had little contact with the French and who went out of their way to avoid them,' notes Slocomb. They regarded the French as oppressive tax-gatherers and threats to their culture. While dykes were dug, maps drawn, railroads built, and ports opened, the Protectorate failed in building a connection with the masses in healthcare services, agriculture, and industry. In agriculture, the vast majority was still engaged in subsistence rice cultivation; Industry also lagged far behind agriculture. Outside urban areas, the French colonial government did not effectively improve nutrition, ensure clean water, or educate the masses. Slocomb writes, 'French officials like Paul Collard were captivated by the charm of rural Cambodian life and seemed reluctant to affect it in any fundamental way'. Development, according to her, 'was reserved for the benefit of French investors and almost deliberately confined to isolated, gated spaces like the rubber plantations of the eastern plateaux.' However, speaking of French remnants in Cambodia, Au noted: 'Infrastructure and bureaucratic/judicial institutions resemble the French mode. Even surnames. In Cambodian society, it wasn't that widespread to have a family name.' 'One of the really interesting things is that the older generation, like my parents' generation, all speak French. And now, everyone younger than me, doesn't speak French. And that is really an artifact of colonialism and French colonial influence in the country.' Mixed Medicines: Health and Culture in French Colonial Cambodia (2011) by Sokhieng Au An Economic History of Cambodia in the Twentieth Century (2010) by Margaret Slocomb Nikita writes for the Research Section of focusing on the intersections between colonial history and contemporary issues, especially in gender, culture, and sport. For suggestions, feedback, or an insider's guide to exploring Calcutta, feel free to reach out to her at ... Read More
