PHNOM PENH: Cambodia and Thailand traded accusations of fresh clashes along their border on Wednesday, after Bangkok said it was pausing the implementation of a US-backed peace deal.
Five days of hostilities erupted between Thailand and Cambodia this summer, killing 43 people and displacing around 300,000 before a truce backed by US President Donald Trump took effect.
However, Thailand on Monday paused implementation of a follow-on deal to wind down hostilities, claiming a blast from a newly laid land mine had wounded four of its soldiers.
Just two days later, officials on both sides have reported gunfire across the boundary between Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province and Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province.
“Thai soldiers opened fire on civilians,” Cambodian information minister Neth Pheaktra said, citing a toll from local authorities that reported five wounded.
Royal Thai Army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said Cambodian soldiers “fired shots into Thai territory” around 4:00 p.m. (0900 GMT) and that its troops “took cover and fired warning shots in response.”
“The incident lasted about 10 minutes before calm was restored,” he said in a statement. “No Thai casualties were reported.”
Cambodia’s information ministry shared images and video which it alleged showed wounded civilians, including one man being treated in an ambulance with a bloodied leg.
AFP was not able to verify the provenance of the images.
‘I am so frightened’
Cambodian villager Hul Malis said by phone that gunfire from across the border had wounded at least three people in her area.
“They just shot at us. We did nothing,” she said. “I am so frightened, I am running away now.”
Her husband, Thong Kimleang, said the Thai military “fired a lot of shots” for around 15 minutes.
The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia centers on a century-old disagreement over their borders mapped during France’s colonial rule in the region, with both sides claiming a smattering of border temples.
Back in July, the region ignited with open combat along the frontier waged with fighter jets, missile strikes and ground troops.
A truce began on July 29 after intervention by Trump, as well as Chinese diplomats and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.
They signed a joint declaration last month, agreeing to withdraw heavy weapons and allowing ceasefire monitors access to the border.
While experts said the deal failed to adjudicate the core territorial dispute, Trump flew into Kuala Lumpur to oversee the pact he cited as evidence of his presidential peace-making abilities.
But the apparent fresh land mine blast and renewed clashes have thrown its future into doubt.
Thailand has already delayed the release of 18 captured Cambodian soldiers, a key plank of the joint declaration.
Cambodia, Thailand trade accusations of fresh border clashes
https://arab.news/65rfs
Cambodia, Thailand trade accusations of fresh border clashes
- Five days of hostilities erupted between Thailand and Cambodia this summer, killing 43 people
- The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia centers on a century-old disagreement over their borders
Tug of war: how US presidents battle Congress for military powers
- The last official declaration of war by Congress was as far back as World War II
WASHINGTON, United States: Donald Trump’s unleashing of operation “Epic Fury” against Iran has once more underscored the long and bitter struggle between US presidents and Congress over who has the power to decide on foreign military action.
In his video address announcing “major combat” with the Islamic republic, Trump didn’t once mention any authorization or consultation with the US House of Representatives or Senate.
In doing so he sidelined not only Democrats, who called for an urgent war powers vote, but also his own Republican party as he asserts his dominance over a largely cowed legislature.
A US official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called top congressional leaders known as the “Gang of Eight” to give them a heads up on the Iran attack — adding that one was unreachable.
Rubio also “laid out the situation” and consulted with the same leaders on Tuesday in an hour-long briefing, the US official said.
According to the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war.
But at the same time the founding document of the United States first signed in 1787 says that the president is the “commander in chief” of the military, a definition that US leaders have in recent years taken very broadly.
The last official declaration of war by Congress was as far back as World War II.
There was no such proclamation during the unpopular Vietnam War, and it was then that Congress sought to reassert its powers.
In 1973 it adopted the War Powers Resolution, passed over Richard Nixon’s veto, to become the only lasting limit on unilateral presidential military action abroad.
The act allows the president to carry out a limited military intervention to respond to an urgent situation created by an attack against the United States.
In his video address on Saturday, Trump evoked an “imminent” threat to justify strikes against Iran.
- Sixty days -
Yet under this law, the president must still inform Congress within 48 hours.
It also says that if the president deploys US troops for a military action for more than 60 days, the head of state must then obtain the authorization of Congress for continued action.
That falls short of an official declaration of war.
The US Congress notably authorized the use of force in such a way after the September 11, 2011 attacks on the United States by Al-Qaeda. Presidents have used it over the past two decades for not only the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan but a series of operations in several countries linked to the “War on Terror.”
Trump is far from the first US president to launch military operations without going through Congress.
Democrat Bill Clinton launched US air strikes against Kosovo in 1999 as part of a NATO campaign, despite the lack of a green light from skeptical lawmakers.
Barack Obama did the same for airstrikes in Libya in 2011.
Trump followed their example in his first term in 2018 when he launched airstrikes in Syria along with Britain and France.
But since his return to power the 79-year-old has sought to push presidential power to its limits, and that includes in the military sphere.
Trump has ordered strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in Latin America without consulting Congress, and in June 2025 struck Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Perhaps the most controversial act was when he ordered the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a lightning military raid on January 3.
Republicans however managed to knock down moves by Democrats for a rare war powers resolution that would have curbed his authority over Venezuela operations.
Trump has meanwhile sought to extend his powers over the home front. Democrats have slammed the Republican for deploying the National Guard in several US cities in what he calls a crackdown on crime and immigration.
