People wait to receive supplies at Wat Por Sovannaram refugee camp, amid clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along a disputed border area, in Ou Chrov district, Banteay Meanchey Province, Cambodia, December 13, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Thailand’s government said a rocket attack from Cambodia on Sunday (December 14, 2025) killed a 63-year-old villager, its first civilian death reported as a direct result of combat over the past week along the border of the two Southeast Asian Nations.
Both countries confirmed that large-scale fighting, which was set off by a skirmish on Sunday (December 7) that wounded two Thai soldiers, continued. The two sides are battling over longstanding competing claims to patches of frontier land, some of which contain centuries-old temple ruins.
More than two dozen people on both sides of the border have officially been reported killed in the past week’s fighting, while more than half a million have been displaced.
Reporters from The Associated Press arrived at the scene of Sunday’s (December 14) rocket impact in Sisaket province’s Kantharalak District about 10 minutes after it hit. They witnessed the body of a man totally wrapped in bandages being put on a stretcher that was taken to an ambulance.
A house a couple of hundred metres away was in flames, with village volunteers attempting to put out the fire with buckets of water. A piece of shrapnel believed to be from the same rocket was embedded nearby in the road.
The victim, identified as Don Patchapan, was killed in the heart of a residential area near a school, according to a Thai Army statement. Thai Government Spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat condemned Cambodia for deliberately firing into civilian areas, saying that such an action was “cruel and inhumane”.
Cambodia has deployed truck-mounted BM-21 rocket launchers with a range of 30-40 km. Each can fire up to 40 rockets at a time, but cannot be precisely targeted. They have landed largely in areas from which most people have already been evacuated.
Thai authorities say Cambodia has launched thousands of the rockets on virtually a daily basis.
Thailand, meanwhile, has been carrying out airstrikes with its fighter planes, with Cambodia saying the bombing continued on Sunday (December, 14). Both sides have employed drones for surveillance and delivering bombs.
The Thai military has acknowledged that 15 of its troops have died during the fighting, and estimated that there have been at least 221 fatalities among Cambodian soldiers.
Cambodia denounced the Thai count of its dead as disinformation but has not yet acknowledged any military casualties. It has said at least 11 civilians have been killed and more than six dozen wounded.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet delivered a morale-boosting message to his countrymen on Sunday (December 14), writing on social media that he is proud to see this Nation’s strength “in this situation where our country is facing difficulties due to aggression from neighbouring countries”.
The new fighting derailed a ceasefire promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump that ended five days of earlier combat in July. It had been brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Mr. Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed.
It was formalised in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Mr. Trump attended.
Mr. Trump announced this past Friday (December 12) that the two countries had agreed at his urging to renew the ceasefire, but Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul denied making any commitment, and Cambodia announced it was continuing to fight in what it said is self-defense.
A Thai Navy warship in the Gulf of Thailand joined the fighting on Saturday (December 13) morning, trading fire with guns based in Cambodia’s Southwestern Province of Koh Kong. Each side blamed the other for initiating the exchange on a new front.
Published – December 14, 2025 04:45 pm IST
