TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A Thai F-16 fighter jet reportedly bombed targets in Cambodia on Thursday, July 24, 2025, as confirmed by CNA. The aerial attack occurred amid weeks of escalating tension stemming from a border dispute that has now devolved into armed clashes, resulting in at least two civilian fatalities.
The Thai military disclosed that one of six F-16 fighter jets, prepared for deployment along the disputed border, fired at and destroyed a military target within Cambodia.
Both nations accuse each other of initiating the conflict early Thursday.
"We have used air power against military targets as planned," Thai Army Deputy Spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon told reporters. Thailand subsequently closed its border with Cambodia.
The clash began Thursday morning near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple, located along the eastern border between Cambodia and Thailand, approximately 360 km from Bangkok.
"Artillery shell fell on people's homes," Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, head of Kabcheing district in Thailand's Surin province, described the Cambodian firing.
He confirmed that "Two people have died," adding that district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer locations.
The Thai military asserted that Cambodia had deployed reconnaissance drones before sending heavily armed troops into the vicinity of the temple.
A Thai military spokesperson further claimed that Cambodian soldiers initiated gunfire, injuring two Thai soldiers, and that Cambodia had utilized various weapons, including rocket launchers.
However, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Ministry of Defense countered these claims, stating that Thai forces had carried out an unjustified attack, to which Cambodian soldiers responded in self-defense.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai described the situation as critical. "We have to be careful," he told reporters. "We will follow international law."
For over a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contended over undemarcated sections along their 817-kilometer land border. This has historically led to intermittent small-scale fighting over several years and resulted in at least a dozen deaths, including artillery exchanges during a week-long confrontation in 2011.
Tensions markedly escalated in May following the death of a Cambodian soldier in a brief exchange of fire, which then spiraled into a major diplomatic crisis and has now ignited armed clashes.
Efforts by Thailand's suspended Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, to de-escalate the recent tension through a leaked phone call with influential former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, sparked a political storm in Thailand and ultimately led to her court-ordered suspension.
Hun Sen stated in a Facebook post that two Cambodian provinces had been attacked by the Thai military.
Antara reported that Thailand earlier this week accused Cambodia of planting landmines in the disputed area, resulting in injuries to three Thai soldiers. Phnom Penh denied the accusation, claiming the soldiers had deviated from an agreed route, thereby triggering explosions of residual landmines from a war decades ago.
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