Overview

• July 24–25 artillery exchanges and air strikes around Prasat Ta Muen Thom and Preah Vihear marked the fiercest border fighting in over a decade, killing dozens, wounding many and displacing tens of thousands.
• Thailand raised its military alert to Level 4, closed all border checkpoints and evacuated tens of thousands of villagers after alleging Cambodian drones had surveilled its positions.
• Cambodia accused Thai troops of breaching an agreement by advancing on temple grounds and installing barbed wire, with Prime Minister Hun Manet saying its forces fired back in self-defense against an “armed invasion.”
• Both armies have reinforced deployments along the poorly demarcated Dangrek Mountains frontier and maintain sharply conflicting narratives over who opened fire.
• The clash underscores unresolved colonial-era boundary disputes and contested International Court of Justice rulings that affirmed Cambodia’s control over Preah Vihear but left adjacent lands in limbo.