The UK Foreign Office has advised against all but essential travel to parts of Cambodia and Thailand following the deadliest border conflict between the two nations in 13 years.
Tensions erupted into violence Thursday when Thailand launched an F-16 airstrike in response to artillery fire from Cambodian forces. At least 11 civilians were killed in the exchange, which marked a sharp escalation in a long-standing territorial dispute.
Both sides blamed each other for initiating the clashes, which began with small arms fire and quickly escalated into heavy shelling across six different areas, spanning 209 kilometers (130 miles) of the disputed frontier — a region contested for over a century.
reuters/s.s