New clashes break out on the border between Thailand and Cambodia. This is what you need to know

Thailand and Cambodia have again accused each other of being the first to fire in a new round of fighting along their restive border, weeks after the two countries signed an agreement in which President Donald Trump helped mediate and promised to keep peace in their long-standing dispute.

Thailand bombed Cambodian targets on Monday after reporting the death of a Thai soldier in a cross-border shootout.

Cambodia reported Death of four civilians in two border provinces, although it was not immediately clear whether Thai attacks had killed them.

The fighting represents a major escalation in tensions between the two Southeast Asian countries.

In July, five days of fighting along the shared border left at least 40 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

They agreed to a ceasefire in late July, brokered in part by Trump, but Thailand suspended peace talks in November.

Thailand said it used F-16 fighter jets to bomb Cambodian military targets on Monday, and Cambodia confirmed that Thai fighter jets attacked around 9 a.m.

Thailand said it was retaliating against a Cambodian attack earlier in the day that killed at least one Thai soldier and wounded eight others in a border province.

The extent of the damage caused by the Thai airstrikes was not immediately clear.

“If you want the fighting to stop, tell the attacker,” Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand’s prime minister, said on Monday.

Cambodia reported that Thai fire killed four civilians and injured nine others.

Hun Sen, Cambodia’s de facto leader, urged moderation.

“All frontline workers must remain patient,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday. Facebook.

About 500,000 people were displaced by this round of fighting.

The Thai military reported that 438,000 people had sought refuge in shelters, and Cambodian authorities reported that tens of thousands of people had left the border.

The hostilities were followed by a cross-border exchange of fire on Sunday that, while not fatal, appeared to raise tensions, with both sides blaming each other for starting the fighting.

After the previous outbreak of violence in July, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Trump and the Malaysian prime minister. Anwar Ibrahim.

At the time, authorities in Thailand and Cambodia also accused the other side of firing first, and both countries exchanged shots and shells for five days.

At least 40 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced.

After the ceasefire, the two countries continued to exchange accusations.

In November, Thailand withdrew from peace talks with Cambodia after two Thai soldiers were injured by a landmine in a disputed border area, undermining Trump’s efforts to portray himself as a global peacemaker.

In a statement on Monday, Anwar said: “Our region cannot afford to allow long-standing disputes to devolve into cycles of confrontation.”

The conflict between Thailand and Cambodia is driven by nationalist rivalries and long-standing border disputes, and fighting has erupted since 2008.

Before the July clashes, the last time a major fatal incident occurred was in 2011.

Much of the conflict stems from disagreements over the nearly 500-mile (800-kilometer) border between the two nations, much of which is undefined.

These disagreements date back to a 1907 map created during French colonial rule, which interprets Thailand and Cambodia differently.

Some of the most tense areas along the border are home to centuries-old temples.

There were discussions about where the border should be and who owns the temples in the region Decades of friction.

Prasat Preah Vihear and Prasat Ta Muen Thom, both Khmer-era Hindu temples about 152 kilometers apart, are two of the key sites where tensions rose in July.

On Monday, the Thai military reported that one of its airstrikes hit a radio tower near the Preah Vihear Temple.

On Monday, the US embassies in Thailand and Cambodia urged Americans to do so Avoid traveling less than 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from the Thai-Cambodian border.

Both embassies said in statements that they were monitoring reports of a “significant escalation” in fighting and that the situation remained “volatile.”

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