Fighting continues on Thai-Cambodian border, despite Trump’s ceasefire claim
Thailand’s leader vowed to keep fighting on the disputed border with Cambodia as fighter jets struck targets on Saturday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul posted on Facebook that the Southeast Asian nation would “continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people.”
Cambodian premier, Hun Manet, in a statement on Saturday on Facebook, said Cambodia continues to seek a peaceful resolution of disputes in line with the October agreement.
A Thai Defence Ministry spokesman, Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, told a press conference that clashes had taken place across seven border provinces and Cambodia had fired heavy weapons, “making it necessary for Thailand to retaliate”.
Cambodia’s Information Ministry said Thai forces had struck bridges and buildings overnight and fired artillery from a naval vessel.
Trump has been keen to intervene again to rescue the truce. Thailand suspended it last month after a Thai soldier was maimed by a landmine, one of many that Bangkok says were newly laid by Cambodia.
Thai leader Anutin dismissed comments by Trump that a “roadside bomb” that wounded the Thai soldiers was accidental, saying the incident was “definitely not a roadside accident”.
Cambodia’s Hun Manet said he had asked the U.S. and Malaysia, which has been a mediator in peace talks, to use their intelligence gathering capabilities to “verify which side fired first” in the latest round of fighting.
Saturday’s fighting continues despite an earlier announcement by U.S. President Trump that the two sides agreed to renew a ceasefire.
“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, disputed Trump’s assertion that the ceasefire was agreed to, without providing any details.
“Our actions this morning already spoke,” Thai PM said.
