BANGKOK (Reuters) -Armed clashes broke out between Thailand and Cambodia along a disputed area of their border early on Thursday, the militaries of both countries said, accusing each other of firing the first shots after weeks of simmering tension.
In a statement, the Thai military said Cambodian troops had opened fire in an area near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple. It said Cambodia had deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops to the area with heavy weapons.
A spokesperson for Cambodia’s defence ministry said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defence.
The clash came after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia 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 in the disputed area.
Thailand has said the landmines had been placed in the area recently, which Cambodia has described as baseless allegations.
Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining groups.
(Reporting by panu Wongcha-um; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Martin Petty)
