Saturday, 4 April 2009

4 Thai soldiers killed along border with Cambodia

Monks rest at Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple near the border with Thailand, 245 kilometres north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Heng Sinith/Associated Press)
CBC News

Friday, April 3, 2009

long-standing land dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over an 11th-century temple turned deadly Friday with reports of fighting that killed four Thai soldiers.

Thai and Cambodian soldiers fired at each other with machine-guns and rocket launchers near the Preah Vihear temple, a Cambodian government spokesman said.

The official said 10 Thai soldiers were detained.

The Thai army could not be reached to confirm fatalities on its side.

The fighting is the latest flare-up near the temple, which is on the Cambodian side of an ill-defined border.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the hilltop temple to Cambodia, but the ruling did not determine ownership of a 4.6-square-kilometre area around it.

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