
Landmine blast wounds Thai soldiers on tense Cambodia border
The blast occurred in Sisaket province at around 10:00 am (0300 GMT), the Royal Thai Military said in a statement.
One soldier suffered a severe leg injury, another was wounded in the back and arm, and the third had extreme pressure damage to the ear.
The incident came after at least 43 people were killed in a five-day conflict that ended on July 29 following a long-running dispute over border temples.
The clashes -- involving jets, artillery, rockets and infantry battles -- ended with a ceasefire, after cajoling by US President Donald Trump.
A meeting of defence officials in Kuala Lumpur ended on Thursday with a deal to extend the ceasefire.
Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai was in neighbouring Surin province on Saturday and has ordered the military to ensure the wounded soldiers receive full medical treatment.
Last month's clashes along the 800-kilometre (500-mile) border forced more than 300,000 people to flee combat areas on both sides of the border - AFP

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Trump-backed peace push leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia one step from final accord, top diplomat says
U.S. President Donald Trump, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pose with their documents during a trilateral signing event at the White House, in Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo (Reuters) -A peace push backed by U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia just one step from a final peace deal and is a paradigm shift in the strategically important South Caucasus region, a top Azerbaijani diplomat said on Saturday. Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed at drawing a line under their decades-long on-off conflict. Russia, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia in the strategically important South Caucasus region which is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, was not included despite its border guards being stationed on the border between Armenia and Iran. While Moscow said it supported the summit, it proposed "implementing solutions developed by the countries of the region themselves with the support of their immediate neighbours – Russia, Iran and Turkey" to avoid what it called the "sad experience" of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East. Azerbaijan's close ally, NATO member Turkey, welcomed the accord. Russia-ally Iran also welcomed the agreement but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders. Baku and Yerevan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. "The chapter of enmity is closed and now we're moving towards lasting peace," said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Britain, predicting that the wider region's prosperity and transport links would be transformed for the better. "This is a paradigm shift," said Suleymanov, who as a former envoy to Washington who used to work in President Aliyev's office, is one of his country's most senior diplomats. Suleymanov declined to speculate on when a final peace deal would be signed however, noting that Aliyev had said he wanted it to happen soon. There remained only one obstacle, said Suleymanov, which was for Armenia to amend its constitution to remove a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh. "Azerbaijan is ready to sign any time once Armenia fulfils the very basic commitment of removing its territorial claim against Azerbaijan in its consitution," he said. MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED Pashinyan this year called for a referendum to change the constitution, but no date for it has been set yet. Armenia is to hold parliamentary elections in June 2026, and the new constitution is expected to be drafted before the vote. The Armenian leader said on X that the Washington summit would pave the way to end the decades of conflict and to open up transport connections in the region that he said would unlock strategic economic opportunities. Friday's agreement saw Armenia hand exclusive U.S. development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus that the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources. The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) which would run across southern Armenia, would give Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nackchivan and in turn to Turkey. Asked when the transit rail route would start running, Suleymanov said that would depend on cooperation between the U.S. and Armenia whom he said were already in talks. Joshua Kucera, Senior South Caucasus analyst at International Crisis Group, said the Washington summit was not the easy win that Trump may have hoped for as the agreements left many questions unanswered. The issue of Armenia's constitution continued to threaten to derail the process, and key questions about how the new transport corridor would work in practice had not been addressed. "Key details are missing, including about how customs checks and security will work and the nature of Armenia's reciprocal access to Azerbaijani territory. These could be serious stumbling blocks," said Kucera. Control of the corridor, which will be operated under Armenian law, is a sensitive issue, with Azerbaijan wary of Armenian law. Suleymanov played down suggestions that Russia, which still has extensive security and economic interests in Armenia, was being disadvantaged. "Anybody and everybody can benefit from this if they choose to," he said. (Reporting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Philippa Fletcher)


The Sun
7 hours ago
- The Sun
Blast at Hezbollah site in Lebanon kills 6 soldiers
BEIRUT: Lebanon's army said a blast at a weapons depot near the Israeli border on Saturday killed six soldiers as a military source said troops were removing munitions from a Hezbollah facility. Under a truce that ended a recent war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, the army has been deploying in south Lebanon and dismantling the militant group's infrastructure there. The deaths come as Lebanon tackles the thorny issue of disarming Hezbollah, with the cabinet this week tasking the army with developing a plan to do so by year end and the Iran-backed group pushing back. Iran said Saturday it opposed the Lebanese government's decision. An army statement gave a preliminary toll of six soldiers killed and others wounded 'while an army unit was inspecting a weapons depot and dismantling its contents in Wadi Zibqin', in the Tyre district near the Israeli border. Investigations were underway to determine the cause of the blast, it added. A military source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media, told AFP the blast took place 'inside a Hezbollah military facility'. Troops were 'removing munitions and unexploded ordnance left over from the recent war' between Israel and Hezbollah when the blast occurred, the source added. President Joseph Aoun said he was informed by army commander Rodolphe Haykal of the 'painful incident' that led to troop casualties. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam paid tribute on X to the troops who were killed 'while performing their national duty', calling the army the protector of Lebanon's 'unity and its legitimate institutions'. Disarmament push The blast came days after Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, said that troops had 'discovered a vast network of fortified tunnels' in the same area. Under the November ceasefire which sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, weapons in Lebanon should be restricted to state institutions. The government has tasked the army with presenting a plan for restricting weapons to government forces by the end of August. Lebanon's cabinet met twice this week on the issue, while Hezbollah has rejected the government's decision to take away its weapons. A senior adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Saturday that Iran 'is certainly opposed to the disarmament of Hezbollah... Iran has always supported the people and the resistance of Lebanon and continues to do so.' Lebanon's cabinet on Thursday discussed a US proposal that includes a timetable for Hezbollah's disarmament, with Washington pressing Beirut to take action. The government endorsed the introduction of the US text without discussing specific timelines, and called for the deployment of Lebanese troops in border areas. It also called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from five south Lebanon areas they have occupied since the recent war. In April, Lebanon's military said three troops were killed in a munitions blast in the south, just days after a soldier was killed and three others wounded in another explosion as authorities said they had been dismantling mines in a tunnel - AFP


The Star
9 hours ago
- The Star
UN plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient', says chair
GENEVA (AFP): Talks at the United Nations on forging a landmark treaty to combat the scourge of plastic pollution have made insufficient progress, the negotiations chair warned Saturday in a frank mid-way assessment. The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment. "Progress made has not been sufficient," Ecuadoran diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso told delegates in a blunt summary as all 184 country delegations gathered in the main assembly hall. "We have arrived at a critical stage where a real push to achieve our common goal is needed", ahead of the Thursday deadline. "August 14 is not just a deadline for our work: it is a date by which we must deliver." The draft text, as it stands, released publicly ahead of Saturday's session, has now ballooned from 22 to 35 pages, with the number of brackets in the text going up from 371 to almost 1,500. It does not specify which countries or groups inserted the proposed text -- meaning the changes could have majority support or be backed by one country alone. "Some articles still have unresolved issues and show little progress towards reaching a common understanding," Valdivieso said. "We have had two and a half years of opportunities for delegations to make proposals," he said, adding: "There is no more time" for such interventions. Countries have reconvened at the UN in Geneva to try and find common ground after the failure of what was supposed to be the fifth and final round of talks in Busan, South Korea, which closed in December without agreement. - AFP