U.N. Refugee Camp on Thai Border Is Hit by Artillery
Artillery shells crashed into a rebel-controlled Cambodian refugee camp just inside the Thai border on Thursday, killing at least 11 people, including some children, and wounding up to 40, officials reported from the site.
Thai military officers and Western aid workers said that half a dozen artillery and mortar rounds struck the heart of the Site 8 camp, causing some of the 30,000 refugees to flee into nearby cornfields with their belongings.
A battle was raging at the time between Vietnamese troops and Khmer Rouge rebels on Cambodian territory 3 1/2 miles away, and it was not certain whether the shells went astray or were aimed at the camp.
The camp, controlled by the Communist Khmer Rouge, strongest of the Cambodian guerrilla groups, lies about 35 miles south of the strategic Thai border town of Aranyaprathet.
It was the first serious attack on a border camp since April, 1985.
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