Cambodian Shells Stray Across Thai Border in Battle
Cambodian troops engaged in fierce battles with rebels in that country’s northern jungle Saturday in some of the most intense fighting in recent weeks, a Thai officer said.
Three Thai soldiers were wounded in the clashes when shells strayed across the border, the senior Thai officer said. Thai troops returned fire.
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said fighting around the resistance base of O’Smach over the last three days has been the heaviest since December.
Cambodian leader Hun Sen has been trying to crush the rebels at O’Smach since August but so far has failed. The rebels are loyal to Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the co-prime minister that Hun Sen deposed in a bloody July coup.
Hun Sen has deployed thousands of tank-backed soldiers in an offensive against the base in northern Cambodia, but the few hundred defenders are well dug-in on hilltops ringed by mines.
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