[Source: Reuters]

Thailand scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia on Thursday after artillery volleys from both sides killed at least 11 civilians, as border tension boiled over into rare armed conflict between the Southeast Asian countries.

Both blamed each other for starting a morning clash at a disputed area of the border, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling in at least six locations 209 kilometres (130 miles) apart along a frontier where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century.

Thailand positioned six F-16 fighter jets in an uncommon combat deployment, one of which was mobilised to strike a Cambodian military target, among measures Cambodia’s foreign ministry called “reckless and brutal military aggression”.

Thailand’s military said the use of air power was to strike with precision.

The worst fighting between the countries in 13 years came after Thailand on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh and expelled Cambodia’s envoy, in response to a second Thai soldier losing a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently by rival troops.

The two countries have been braced for conflict since the killing of a Cambodian soldier late in May during a brief skirmish, with troops reinforced on both sides of the border amid a full-blown diplomatic crisis that brought Thailand’s fragile coalition government to the brink of collapse.

Thailand said there were 12 fatalities in three Thai provinces, 11 of them civilians including an eight-year-old boy. Authorities said 31 people were injured on Thursday. The number of Cambodian casualties was unclear.

“We condemn this – using heavy weapons without a clear target, outside of conflict zones… the use of force and did not adhere to international law,” Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters.

“We remain committed to peaceful means and there should be discussions, but what happened was a provocation and we had to defend ourselves.”

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