SURIN, Thailand (AP) — Fighting on the border between Thailand and Cambodia continued Saturday morning, even as U.S. President Donald Trump, acting as a mediator, announced he had won a ceasefire between the two countries.
Thai officials said they did not agree to a ceasefire, and Cambodia did not comment on Trump’s claims. Its defense ministry said Thai jets carried out an airstrike on Saturday morning. Cambodian media reported Trump’s claims without elaborating.
The latest large-scale fighting was sparked by a Dec. 7 skirmish that wounded two Thai soldiers and undermined a Trump-driven ceasefire that ended five days of fighting in July over a long-running territorial dispute.
The July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and reached under pressure from Trump, who threatened to revoke trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. The deal was formalized in more detail in October when Trump attended a regional meeting in Malaysia.
About two dozen people have been killed in fighting over the past week, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border, according to official reports.
The Thai military acknowledged that 11 Thai soldiers were killed and estimated that 165 Cambodian soldiers died. Cambodia has not announced military casualties but said at least 11 civilians were killed and 76 injured.
Trump announced an agreement to revive the ceasefire on Friday after speaking with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Chamvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Mane.
“They have agreed to stop all shootings effective tonight and, with the help of the great Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, return to the original peace agreement they and I made,” Trump said in his Truth Society post.
Trump’s statement came after midnight in Bangkok. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Anutin said after a phone call with Trump that he had explained the reasons for Thailand’s fighting and said peace would depend on Cambodia stopping the attacks first. Thailand’s foreign ministry later explicitly refuted Trump’s assertion that a ceasefire had been reached. Anutin’s busy schedule on Friday included dissolving parliament to allow for new elections early next year.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Mane also made no mention of a ceasefire in comments made early Saturday morning.
He said he spoke by phone with Trump on Friday night and with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim the night before, and thanked both men for their “continued efforts to achieve lasting peace between Cambodia and Thailand.”
“Cambodia is ready to cooperate in any way needed,” Hun Mane wrote.
Thailand has been conducting airstrikes against what it calls strictly military targets, while Cambodia has fired thousands of medium-range BM-21 rockets, causing severe damage but relatively few casualties.
The BM-21 rocket launcher can fire up to 40 rockets at a time and has a range of 30-40 kilometers (19-25 miles). The rockets could not be aimed accurately and mostly landed in areas where most people had already evacuated.
However, the Thai military announced on Saturday that a BM-21 rocket hit a civilian area in Sisaket Province, seriously injuring two civilians who heard the siren and ran to a bunker for safety.
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Peck reported from Bangkok. Sopheng Cheang in Serei Saophoan, Cambodia, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.