By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

The Thailand- Cambodia War 25 July 2025

Thailand’s military conflict with Cambodia is inflaming nationalist tensions at home and threatening embattled leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who had already been suspended as prime minister for her handling of the border dispute. Tweets supporting the Thai army and air force were trending on social media platforms X and Facebook in Thailand.

Ms Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended as Thailand's prime minister following a leaked phone call between her and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.

 

Development Of The War During 25 July 2025

A Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia on July 24, both sides said, as weeks of tension over a border dispute escalated into clashes that have killed at least 12 people, including 11 civilians.

Of the six F-16 fighter jets that Thailand has readied to deploy along the disputed border, one of the aircraft fired into Cambodia and destroyed a military target, the Thai army said.

Both countries accused each other of starting the clash early on July 24.

“We have used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai army deputy spokesman Richa Suksuwanon told reporters. Thailand also closed its border with Cambodia.

Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said the jets dropped two bombs on a road, and that it “strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged peaceful coexistence between the neighbours during a meeting on July 10.

The Thai military launched a second round of air strikes on the evening of July 24, deploying four F-16 fighter jets to bomb a key Cambodian military command post located south of the Ta Moan Thom temple, The Nation reported.

Thailand’s Health Minister said 11 civilians, including a child, and one soldier were killed in artillery shelling by Cambodian forces, while 24 civilians and seven military personnel were wounded. There was no immediate word of casualties in Cambodia.

“The Thai Army condemns Cambodia for using weapons to attack civilians in Thailand. Thailand is ready to protect sovereignty and our people from inhumane action,” the country’s military said in a statement.

Thailand launched air strikes on Cambodian military targets on July 24 as Cambodia fired rockets and artillery in a dramatic escalation of a long-running border row between the two countries.

The neighbours are locked in a bitter spat over an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of both countries and Laos meet, and which is home to several ancient temples.

Cambodian cross-border strikes on July 24 killed at least 11 civilians, most of them in a rocket strike near a petrol station in Sisaket province, the Thai Ministry of Public Health said.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, the current chair of Asean, said on the evening of July 24 that he had spoken to the prime ministers of both countries to appeal for an immediate ceasefire to create space for dialogue and a diplomatic resolution.

He added: “I welcome the positive signals and willingness shown by both Bangkok and Phnom Penh to consider this path forward. Malaysia stands ready to assist and facilitate this process in the spirit of Asean unity and shared responsibility.

“I firmly believe that Asean’s strength lies in its solidarity and that peace must always be our collective and unwavering choice.”

China also expressed concern at the fighting and said it was willing to play a role in promoting de-escalation. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing would adopt a “fair and impartial position” in the clashes, adding: “Good neighbourliness and properly handling differences are in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of both sides.”

Thai residents, including children and the elderly, ran to shelters built of concrete and fortified with sandbags and car tyres in the Surin border province.

“How many rounds have been fired? It’s countless,” an unidentified woman told the Thai Public Broadcasting Service while hiding in the shelter, with gunfire and explosions heard intermittently in the background.

Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry said Thailand’s air strikes were “unprovoked”, and called on its neighbor to withdraw its forces and “refrain from any further provocative actions that could escalate the situation”.

Cambodian soldiers looking at people evacuating from along the Cambodia-Thailand border in Preah Vihear province, on July 24.

 

Landmines

The clashes began early on July 24 near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple along the eastern border between Cambodia and Thailand, around 360km from the Thai capital Bangkok.

Thailand’s military said in a statement that nine people have been killed across three border provinces, including an eight-year-old boy in Surin.

“Artillery shell fell on people’s homes,” Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, district chief of Kabcheing in Thailand’s Surin province, told Reuters, adding that the district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer locations.

“Two people have died,” he added.

Thai police standing guard outside the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok as people gathered to protest amid the escalating Thai-Cambodian border dispute, on July 20.

Video footage showed a plume of thick black smoke rising from a petrol station in the neighbouring Thai Sisaket province, as firefighters rushed to extinguish the blaze.

Six people were killed and 10 wounded at the site, the military said, adding that another person was killed in the border province of Ubon Ratchathani.

The military said Cambodia deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops with heavy weapons to an area near the temple.

Cambodian troops opened fire and two Thai soldiers were wounded, a Thai army spokesperson said, adding that Cambodia had used multiple weapons, including rocket launchers.

A spokesperson for Cambodia’s Defence Ministry, however, said there had been an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops, and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defense.

Thailand’s Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the situation was delicate.

“We have to be careful,” he told reporters. “We will follow international law.”

An attempt by Thai Premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra to resolve the recent tensions via a call with Cambodia’s influential former prime minister Hun Sen, the contents of which were leaked, kicked off a political storm in Thailand, leading to her suspension by a court.

Hun Sen in a Facebook post said two Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from the Thai military.

Thailand this week accused Cambodia of placing landmines in a disputed area that injured three soldiers.

Phnom Penh denied the claim, and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered a mine left behind from decades of war.

Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions, according to de-mining groups.

But Thailand maintains that landmines have been placed at the border area recently, which Cambodia has described as baseless allegations.

Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador on July 23 and recalled its own envoy, after a Thai soldier lost a leg in a landmine blast as a border dispute festers.

Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said an investigation by the Thai military found evidence that Cambodia had laid new landmines in the disputed area.

A long-running territorial row in an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of both countries and Laos meet, boiled over into military clashes in May that left one Cambodian soldier dead.

Since then, the two sides have traded barbs and tit-for-tat retaliatory measures, with Thailand restricting border crossings and Cambodia halting certain imports.

Five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by the landmine in the afternoon of July 23 in the Nam Yuen district of north-eastern Ubon Ratchathani province, the Thai army said.

In response, the government agreed to an army proposal to close a number of border checkpoints, he said in a statement to journalists.

“It has also decided to downgrade diplomatic relations by recalling the Thai ambassador to Cambodia and expelling Cambodia’s ambassador to Thailand,” he said.

The Thai army said in a statement that as well as the soldier who lost his leg, others suffered ear injuries and chest pain in the blast.

The army chief will visit the wounded soldiers today July 24.

The border dispute has soured relations between Phnom Penh and Bangkok – prompting the closure of border crossings, and Cambodia blocking imports of fuel and gas as well as fruit and vegetables from Thailand.

It also kicked off a domestic political crisis in Thailand, where Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been suspended from office pending an ethics probe over her conduct during the row.

A diplomatic call between Paetongtarn and Hun Sen, Cambodia’s former long-time ruler and father of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, was leaked from the Cambodian side, sparking a judicial investigation.

Last week, Hun Manet announced that Cambodia would start conscripting civilians next year, activating a long-dormant mandatory draft law.

He said the tensions with Thailand meant conscription was needed, and the defense budget may also be increased.

Cambodia’s Parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months.

China urged Cambodia and Thailand to resolve their border dispute through friendly dialogue, offering to play a constructive role by upholding an "objective and fair" position, its foreign ministry said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged peaceful coexistence between the neighbours during a meeting on July 10 with his Thai counterpart Maris Sangiampongsa on the sidelines of an Asean summit in Malaysia, the ministry said in a statement.

"China is willing to uphold an objective and fair position and play a constructive role for the harmonious coexistence between Thailand and Cambodia," Wang said.

Cambodian soldiers gather during a visit of Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet at a military base in Preah Vihear province, on June 23.

Dozens of tourists and workers, some carrying children, were left stranded on June 24 at Thailand’s main land crossing with Cambodia, after the army stopped almost all border traffic in an escalating territorial dispute.

Thailand has closed crossing points in all seven border provinces to everyone except students and those seeking medical treatment, after a long-running row erupted into military clashes in May in which a Cambodian soldier was killed.

There was confusion at the Ban Khlong Luek checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province – the main crossing for people travelling overland to Cambodia’s Siem Reap, where the Angkor Wat complex is located.

Around 50 Cambodian workers, mostly vendors who regularly cross into Thailand for trade, found themselves stuck at the checkpoint, unable to return home.

“I wanted to go back last night but had to sleep at my shop instead because police didn’t allow me to cross,” said Ms Malin Po, 38, a clothing seller.

“I usually cross every day because I come to work in Thailand and go back home to Cambodia.” She said no one had explained why the checkpoint was closed, leaving many frustrated.

Riot police were stationed near the crossing point – a grand archway sealed shut with yellow railings – as people trudged back towards the Thai side after being turned away.

The Thai military said in a statement that the restrictions “matched the current security situation, particularly in addressing the conflict in areas between Thailand and Cambodia that continue to intensify politically, diplomatically and militarily”.

Thai border police said it was unclear when the crossing would reopen, adding that officers on the ground were following military orders with limited information.

 

 

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