Well this looks fun.
More than 100,000 people have now fled the border between the two nations:
The conflict stems from a land dispute involving the Preah Vihear Temple area. See, in 1907, the French drew a map that placed the 11th-century Buddhist temple in Cambodia, which Thailand has never been happy about.
(If I could only go back in time and warn the WW1-era European powers about the consequences of their dang maps.)
In 2008 and 2011, the nations briefly fought over the area, leading to a tense stalemate formalized by a UN court ruling in 2013.
In May, however, a Cambodia soldier was killed on the border and things have been heating up ever since.
More from the AFP:
Ground troops backed up by tanks battled for control of territory, while Cambodia fired rockets and shells into Thailand and the Thais scrambled F-16 jets to hit military targets across the border.
Both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket.
Thursday's clashes came hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its own envoy after five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by a landmine.
On English-speaking social media, propaganda is already spinning up. For example, the pro-Ukrainian/pro-Israel accounts are now apparently on the side of Thailand?
By this evening, I firmly expect everyone in America to be arguing about whether Trump should be sending $400 billion in missiles to one of the two nations. 😭
More videos:
(Hmm ... F-16s, wonder where they got those? 🤔)
In terms of military power, Thailand has the upper edge (Cambodia's experiment with communism really set them back). While their inventory of tanks and artillery units are almost equal, Cambodia has a third of the personnel that Thailand does and has essentially no air force (its only air vehicles are a handful of helicopters and transport planes). Cambodia also spends less than $1 billion USD a year to maintain its military, while Thailand's military has a budget of nearly $6 billion USD.
One more video with a bunch of details/footage for you:
The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on Friday regarding the situation.
Not sure those clowns can keep the world together anymore, but I wish them the best of luck.
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