<p>Bangkok: An armed conflict that erupted on Thursday between Cambodia and Thailand has killed nine Thai civilians across three provinces, the Thai army said.</p><p>Those killed included an 8-year-old boy. A further 14 people in Thailand have been injured as a result of the fighting, the army said in a statement. </p><p><strong>Border conflict</strong></p><p>Thailand's military deployed an F-16 fighter jet against Cambodia's armed forces on Thursday, the Thai army said, as weeks of tension over a border dispute escalated into clashes that have killed at least two civilians.</p><p>Of the six F-16 fighter jets that Thailand has readied to deploy along the disputed border, one of the aircraft fired into Cambodia and destroyed a military target, the Thai army said. </p><p>Both countries accused each other of starting the clash early on Thursday. "We have used air power against military targets as planned," Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon told reporters. </p><p>Cambodia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation on the air strike. The skirmishes came after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia late on Wednesday and said it would expel Cambodia's envoy in Bangkok, after a second Thai soldier in the space of a week lost a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently in the disputed area. </p>.India calls for ceasefire in Gaza, says intermittent pauses 'not enough'.<p>For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817 km (508 miles) land border, which has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery in 2011.</p><p>Tensions were reignited in May following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, which escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and now has triggered armed clashes.</p><p>The clashes began early on Thursday near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple along the eastern border between Cambodia and Thailand, around 360 km from the Thai capital Bangkok.</p><p>"Artillery shell fell on people's homes," Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, district chief of Kabcheing in Thailand's Surin province, told Reuters, describing the firing by the Cambodian side.</p><p>"Two people have died," he said, adding that district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer locations.</p><p>Cambodia's influential former premier Hun Sen in a Facebook post said two Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from the Thai military.</p><p>Thailand this week accused Cambodia of placing landmines in a disputed area that injured three soldiers. Phnom Penh denied the claim and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered a mine left behind from decades of war.</p><p>Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining groups.</p><p>But Thailand maintains landmines have been placed at the border area recently, which Cambodia has described as baseless allegations. </p>
<p>Bangkok: An armed conflict that erupted on Thursday between Cambodia and Thailand has killed nine Thai civilians across three provinces, the Thai army said.</p><p>Those killed included an 8-year-old boy. A further 14 people in Thailand have been injured as a result of the fighting, the army said in a statement. </p><p><strong>Border conflict</strong></p><p>Thailand's military deployed an F-16 fighter jet against Cambodia's armed forces on Thursday, the Thai army said, as weeks of tension over a border dispute escalated into clashes that have killed at least two civilians.</p><p>Of the six F-16 fighter jets that Thailand has readied to deploy along the disputed border, one of the aircraft fired into Cambodia and destroyed a military target, the Thai army said. </p><p>Both countries accused each other of starting the clash early on Thursday. "We have used air power against military targets as planned," Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon told reporters. </p><p>Cambodia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation on the air strike. The skirmishes came after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia late on Wednesday and said it would expel Cambodia's envoy in Bangkok, after a second Thai soldier in the space of a week lost a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently in the disputed area. </p>.India calls for ceasefire in Gaza, says intermittent pauses 'not enough'.<p>For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817 km (508 miles) land border, which has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery in 2011.</p><p>Tensions were reignited in May following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, which escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and now has triggered armed clashes.</p><p>The clashes began early on Thursday near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple along the eastern border between Cambodia and Thailand, around 360 km from the Thai capital Bangkok.</p><p>"Artillery shell fell on people's homes," Sutthirot Charoenthanasak, district chief of Kabcheing in Thailand's Surin province, told Reuters, describing the firing by the Cambodian side.</p><p>"Two people have died," he said, adding that district authorities had evacuated 40,000 civilians from 86 villages near the border to safer locations.</p><p>Cambodia's influential former premier Hun Sen in a Facebook post said two Cambodian provinces had come under shelling from the Thai military.</p><p>Thailand this week accused Cambodia of placing landmines in a disputed area that injured three soldiers. Phnom Penh denied the claim and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered a mine left behind from decades of war.</p><p>Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining groups.</p><p>But Thailand maintains landmines have been placed at the border area recently, which Cambodia has described as baseless allegations. </p>