PHNEM PENG: Cambodia accused Thailand on Friday of intensifying its bombardment of disputed border areas, even as officials from the two countries attend a multi-day meeting aimed at negotiating an end to deadly clashes.
The neighbors’ long-standing border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce and killing more than 40 people, according to official counts. Around a million people have also been displaced.
Cambodian and Thai officials were in their third day of talks at a border checkpoint on Friday, with defense ministers from both countries scheduled to meet on Saturday.
However, Cambodia’s defense ministry said Thailand’s military carried out a heavy bombardment of disputed border areas in Banteay Meanchey province Friday morning.
“From 6:08 am to 7:15 am, the Thai military deployed F-16 fighter jets to drop as many as 40 bombs, to intensify its bombardment in the area of Chok Chey village,” it said in a statement.
Thai media said Friday that Cambodian forces had launched heavy attacks overnight along the border in Sa Kaeo province, where several homes were damaged by shelling.
The two countries blame each other for instigating the fresh fighting, which has spread to nearly every province along their border.
Both countries also claim to have acted in self-defense and accuse the other of attacking civilians.
The United States, China and Malaysia brokered a truce to end five days of deadly clashes in July, but the ceasefire was short-lived.
Earlier Friday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Facebook that he had spoken by phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the two discussed “ways to secure a ceasefire along the Cambodia-Thailand border.”
The conflict stems from a territorial dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometer (500-mile) frontier and a collection of temple ruins situated there.
Cambodia says Thailand escalated strikes during border talks
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Cambodia says Thailand escalated strikes during border talks
- Cambodia accused Thailand on Friday of intensifying its bombardment of disputed border areas
US lawmaker Fine criticized by rights advocates, Democrats after anti-Muslim remarks
- Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others
WASHINGTON: Rights advocates and multiple Democrats on Tuesday condemned anti-Muslim comments by Republican US Representative Randy Fine who said on Sunday that “the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Fine, whose comments against Muslims have often sparked outrage, has dismissed the criticism and since doubled down on his remarks on social media. The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated the Republican US lawmaker from Florida as an anti-Muslim extremist last year.
“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Fine said on X on Sunday in a post that had over 40 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Some high-profile Democrats including California Governor Gavin Newsom called for him to resign while House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Fine an “Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.”
Jeffries also called for Republicans — who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress — to hold Fine accountable.
“To ignore this is to accept and normalize it,” Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. Fine’s past comments include calling for the mass expulsion of all Muslims from the US, labeling of Muslims as “terrorists” and the mocking of the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza, among others. Rights advocates have noted a rise in Islamophobia in the US in recent years due to a range of factors including hard-line immigration policies and white-supremacist rhetoric, as well as the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza on American society.
