Fighting over Thailand and Cambodia border entered its third day and new flashpoints emerged Saturday, raising the death toll to 33, as both sides said they had acted in self-defense in the bloodiest border dispute in years, and Phnom Penh called for an "immediate ceasefire".
A long-running border dispute erupted into intense conflict involving jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, prompting the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis Friday.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists in the Cambodian town of Samraong, near the border that has seen the bulk of the fighting, heard the thump of artillery early Saturday afternoon.
A Thai villager reached by phone as he sheltered in a bunker in Sisaket province, just 10 kilometers from the frontier, also reported hearing artillery.
"I just want this to end as soon as possible," Sutian Phiewchan told AFP.
