Three Cambodian and three Thai soldiers have been killed after fighting erupted on the countries' disputed border, according to officials on both sides.
‘Some of our soldiers were injured and three died in the clash,’ Cambodian defence ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat said in Phnom Penh.
The Thai military said three of its soldiers had died and 13 others were wounded.
‘They died after being hit by shrapnel,’ said a Thai army spokesman in the border area, Colonel Prawit Hookaew, adding that three of the injured were in critical condition.
‘The fighting has ceased now,’ he added.
Both sides accused each other of starting the fighting, which involved artillery and small arms fire. The violence shattered a two-month lull in long-standing tensions on the border.
Fighting took place around Ta Moan and Ta Krabei temples in the northeastern Thai province of Surin, about 150km southwest of the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, which saw a deadly stand-off in February.
