{"id":445893,"date":"2025-12-14T06:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445893\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T06:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:07:17","slug":"thailand-launches-new-offensive-as-cambodia-halts-all-border-crossings-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/445893\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand launches new offensive as Cambodia halts all border crossings | Conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Royal Thai Navy spokesman says its military launched an operation to reclaim border \u2018territories\u2019 in Trat province.<\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s military has launched a new offensive against Cambodia to \u201creclaim sovereign territory\u201d, spurning mediation efforts including that of United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Violence between the two Southeast Asian nations<\/a> continued on Sunday, a day after Phnom Penh announced that it was shutting all of its crossings with Thailand, its northern neighbour.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The conflict stems from a long-running dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) shared border. Fighting has left at least 25 soldiers and civilians dead, and displaced over half a million people on both sides.<\/p>\n

The newspaper Matichon Online quoted a Royal Thai Navy spokesman, Rear Admiral Parach Rattanachaiyapan, as saying that its forces \u201claunched a military operation to reclaim Thai sovereign territory\u201d in an area of the coastal province of Trat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe operation began in the early morning hours with heavy clashes, conducted under the principles of self-defence according to international law and the preservation of national sovereignty,\u201d Rattanachaiyapan told the Thai newspaper.<\/p>\n

The Thai military said it has \u201csuccessfully controlled and reclaimed the area, expelling all opposing forces\u201d.<\/p>\n

The public television channel Thai PBS also reported that the country\u2019s military \u201cplanted the Thai national flag\u201d after \u201cdriving out all opposing forces\u201d in the area.<\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s TV 3 Morning News quoted the military as saying that, as of early Sunday, the country\u2019s \u201carmy, Navy and Air Force are continuing with [their] operations\u201d along the border.<\/p>\n

It also reported \u201csporadic clashes\u201d in several other areas, including in Surin\u2019s Ta Khwai area where \u201cdirect fire and indirect\u201d and drone attacks took place.<\/p>\n

There were no immediate reports on casualties from the latest incidents. The Cambodian military has yet to issue a statement regarding the latest fighting on Sunday.<\/p>\n

But the Cambodian news website Cambodianess reported attacks in at least seven areas including in Pursat province, where the Thai military reportedly used F-16 fighter jet to drop bombs in the Thma Da commune.<\/p>\n

Thai military also allegedly fired artillery shells southward into Boeung Trakoun village in the Banteay Meanchey province.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera could not independently confirmed the reports as of publication time.<\/p>\n

\"epaselectDisplaced Thai villagers who fled their homes following clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops rest at an evacuation centre in Si Sa Ket province in Thailand [Rungroj Yongrit\/EPA]Border shutdown<\/p>\n

Late on Saturday, Cambodia announced that it was shutting all border crossings with Thailand due to the fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to fully suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings, effective immediately and until further notice,\u201d Cambodia\u2019s Ministry of Interior said in a statement late on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The border shutdown was yet another symptom of the frayed relations between the neighbouring countries, despite international pressure to secure peace.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Trump had declared that he had won agreement from both countries for a new ceasefire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Thai officials said they had not agreed to pause the conflict. Rather, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledged that his country\u2019s military would continue fighting on the disputed border.<\/p>\n

Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow also said on Saturday that some of Trump\u2019s remarks did not \u201creflect an accurate understanding of the situation\u201d on the ground.<\/p>\n

Cambodia has not commented directly on Trump\u2019s claim of a new ceasefire, but its Ministry of National Defence said earlier that Thai jets carried out air strikes on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

The latest large-scale fighting was set off by a skirmish on December 7, which wounded two Thai soldiers, derailing a ceasefire promoted by Trump that ended five days of combat in July.<\/p>\n

The July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalised in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.<\/p>\n

Trump has cited his work on the Southeast Asian conflict as he lobbies for a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

Late on Saturday, a spokesman for Trump said in a statement: \u201cThe President expects all parties to fully honor the commitments they have made in signing these agreements, and he will hold anyone accountable as necessary to stop the killing and ensure durable peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DisplacedDisplaced people gather at a temporary camp in the Banteay Meanchey province of Cambodia on Saturday amid clashes along the country\u2019s border with Thailand [Tang Chhin Sothy\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Royal Thai Navy spokesman says its military launched an operation to reclaim border \u2018territories\u2019 in Trat province.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":445894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13214,19446,113,69,454,1802,50,11843,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-445893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-cambodia","10":"tag-conflict","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-thailand","16":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115716427706531204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}