Cambodia counts the cost of its border war with Thailand

BBC:

The costs of the border war between Thailand and Cambodia are cruelly obvious in the hospital in Mongkol Borei, a breezy, low-rise complex surrounded by trees.

Wounded soldiers lie quietly on their beds. One man, his arm amputated from the elbow, has his wife sitting with him, smiling and trying to encourage him. The wife and child of another sit on a mat next to his bed.

Anaesthetist Sar Chanraksmey’s hands are shaking, and tears rim his eyes, as he shows me graphic images on his phone of the terrible blast injuries he has treated.

“My heart aches,” he says. “Please tell the world we just want peace.”

This second round of fighting between the two armies in less than six months has lasted longer than the five-day war in July, and been a lot more destructive.

There have been artillery exchanges all along the 800km (500-mile) border, and intense close-quarter battles between Thai and Cambodian soldiers for control of a few forested hilltops.

The Thai air force has had a free hand bombing targets inside Cambodia, which has limited air defences and no air force of its own to speak of.

Cambodia’s feared BM21 rockets, an inherently inaccurate weapon, have rained down on the Thai side of the border, killing a civilian and injuring others, despite an early evacuation by the authorities.