Cambodian Co-Rulers’ Troops Clash

Accusing his ruling partner of launching an attempted coup, one of Cambodia’s feuding prime ministers declared himself the country’s sole leader today as their forces battled for the second straight day.

Here in the capital, forces loyal to First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen exchanged heavy rocket and artillery fire at dawn after an all-night curfew.

Shortly before 8 a.m., a giant plume of black smoke was seen rising over the northwestern part of the city. A fuel storage dump was believed to have been hit, but that could not be immediately confirmed. Thousands of people were fleeing the city.

In a statement faxed this morning to news organizations in Phnom Penh, Ranariddh charged his longtime rival with an illegal power grab.

“Mr. Hun Sen has now placed himself outside the law,” Ranariddh said in the statement. “The only government is the one over which I preside.”

The fax gave no clue as to Ranariddh’s whereabouts. He has not been seen since he reportedly left Cambodia for France on Friday.

Also today, however, a radio station controlled by Hun Sen denied that a coup was underway.

The radio urged people to remain calm and said government troops were fighting Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the capital.

“If it were a coup, FUNCINPEC ministers and officials would be arrested,” the radio said, referring to Ranariddh’s royalist party.

Weeks of rising tensions and isolated clashes erupted into a bloody mortar and rocket battle in the capital Saturday as Hun Sen’s soldiers attacked Ranariddh’s.

The barrages killed at least four people and wounded 29, hospital and military officials said.