Thailand launches new offensive as Cambodia halts all border crossings

A Royal Thai Navy spokesman says its military launched an operation to reclaim border ‘territories’ in Trat province. Thai

land’s military has launched a new offensive against Cambodia to “reclaim sovereign territory”, spurning mediation efforts, including that of United States President Donald Trump. Violence b

etween the two Southeast Asian nations continued on Sunday, a day after Phnom Penh announced that it was shutting all of its crossings with Thailand, its northern neighbour. The confli

ct stems from a long-running dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) shared border. Fighting h

as left at least 25 soldiers and civilians dead, and displaced over half a million people on both sides. The newspa

per Matichon Online quoted a Royal Thai Navy spokesman, Rear Admiral Parach Rattanachaiyapan, as saying that its forces “launched a military operation to reclaim Thai sovereign territory” in an area of the coastal province of Trat. “The 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,” Rattanachaiyapan told the Thai newspaper. The Thai military

said it has “successfully controlled and reclaimed the area, expelling all opposing forces”. The public television

channel Thai PBS also reported that the country’s military “planted the Thai national flag” after “driving out all opposing forces” in the area. Thailand’s TV 3 Morning News quo

ted the military as saying that, as of early Sunday, the country’s “army, Navy and Air Force are continuing with [their] operations” along the border. There were no immediate reports on casua