\n<\/p>\n
Thailand and Cambodia have reported new fighting in their ongoing border conflict, as the first talks between the sides since the latest outbreak of violence get under way.<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s military said on Wednesday that there had been clashes in the border provinces of Sisaket and Surin, Thai media reported, with Thai forces responding to Cambodian BM-21 rocket attacks with artillery, tank fire and drones.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n One Thai soldier was injured in the Pha Mo I Daeng\u2013Huai Ta Maria area of Sisaket province, the Thai army said, before Thai forces returned fire, striking more than 19 Cambodian military targets.<\/p>\n Cambodia\u2019s Ministry of National Defence said Thai forces had carried out air attacks on Banan district in the northwestern border province of Battambang, hitting a civilian residential area with four bombs.<\/p>\n Cambodia\u2019s Ministry of Education also released a video showing what it said were scenes of panic at a school in the province, with students fleeing as the air raid was carried out.<\/p>\n Further, the ministry said two civilians had been injured by Thai shelling in Banteay Meanchey province, the Khmer Times reported.<\/p>\n The latest fighting came just before a meeting of defence officials began on Wednesday at the Ban Pakkad-Pailin border crossing between the countries.<\/p>\n The talks are the first between the sides since renewed clashes broke out on December 7, killing more than 40 people and displacing about a million, according to official counts.<\/p>\n The two sides agreed on Monday to hold the talks, within the framework of an existing bilateral border committee, the Cambodia-Thailand General Border Committee, following a regional push to end the fighting.<\/p>\n Reporting from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, Al Jazeera\u2019s Assed Baig said that the meeting was underway, with ASEAN countries acting as observers, but was not expected to yield any major breakthrough.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very important to be clear about what this meeting is and isn\u2019t. It\u2019s between defence and military officials, not politicians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a forum where a ceasefire can be agreed or signed.\u201d<\/p>\n At best, he said, the talks would be about \u201cstabilising the situation, clarifying incidents between the parties and keeping those lines of communication open\u201d.<\/p>\n Any agreement on a ceasefire would have to come from the political leaders in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, he said, \u201cand that\u2019s where outside pressure comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n The US, China and ASEAN countries had all been speaking to both countries, urging a resolution to the conflict.<\/p>\n So far though, he said, \u201cboth sides are still locked in the blame game\u201d.<\/p>\n Thailand and Cambodia have engaged in daily exchanges of rocket and artillery fire along their 817km (508-mile) land border following the collapse earlier this month of a truce brokered by the United States and Malaysia that put an end to five days of fighting in July.<\/p>\n The conflict stems from a territorial dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) border and a smattering of ancient temple ruins situated on the frontier.<\/p>\n Each side has blamed the other for instigating the renewed fighting, claiming self-defence, while trading accusations of attacks on civilians.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a Cambodian official has accused Thailand of destroying a Hindu statue in a disputed border area, condemning the destruction of items of religious significance.<\/p>\n Kim Chanpanha, a government spokesman in the border province of Preah Vihear, said the statue of Vishnu, built in 2014, was demolished by Thai forces on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe condemn the destruction of ancient temples and statues that are worshipped by Buddhist and Hindu followers,\u201d Chanpanha said.<\/p>\n Videos showing the demolition of the statue using a backhoe loader circulated on social media.<\/p>\n The Thai military has not commented on the incident, but released a statement rejecting Cambodian claims that it was using cluster munitions intended to harm civilians.<\/p>\n The statement said its cluster munitions were dual-purpose artillery shells used against military targets, in line with the principles of \u201cmilitary necessity\u201d and \u201cproportionality\u201d.<\/p>\n It added that the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which prohibits signatories from using such weapons, was not applicable as neither Thailand nor Cambodia was a party to the agreement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thailand and Cambodia have reported new fighting in their ongoing border conflict, as the first talks between the sides since the latest outbreak of violence get under way. Thailand\u2019s military said on Wednesday that there had been clashes in the border provinces of Sisaket and Surin, Thai media reported, with Thai forces responding to Cambodian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Talks begin<\/h2>\n
Thailand accused of demolishing Hindu statue<\/h2>\n
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