Five Thai soldiers injured in fresh border clash

via CAAI

February 15, 2011

Five Thai soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a fresh clash Monday night with Cambodian soldiers along the border while a mediating meeting was going on at UN in New York, an army commander said on Tuesday.

Lt-Gen Tawatchai Samutsakhon, commander of Thailand's 2nd Army which is deployed in the Thai-Cambodian border area, said the Cambodian troops launched an attack on their base in Phu Ma Khua area near the disputed area on Monday night. Tawatchai said that the Cambodian attack took place shortly after 10 p.m. while representatives of Thailand and Cambodia were presenting their accounts of the territorial dispute to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The attack was followed by a clash, he said.

The fresh crossfire between Thai and Cambodian troops took place after the border area resumed temporary peace for about a week.

The Thai-Cambodian border area near Preah Vihear temple had seen a serial clashes from Feb. 4th to 7th, the fiercest in years between the two neighboring countries in an age-long dispute over the ownership of a land plot around that temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The strip of a 4.6-sq-km land was claimed by both countries.

Source: Xinhua