BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH: Thailand scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia on Thursday after artillery volleys from both sides killed at least 11 civilians, as border tension boiled over into rare armed conflict between the Southeast Asian countries. Both blamed each other for starting a morning clash at a disputed area of the border, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling. Hostilities flared in at least six locations 209 km (130 miles) apart along a frontier where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century.

Fighting was reported in at least six locations along the disputed Thai-Cambodia border on Thursday, with Thailand launching air strikes.

Thai air strikes rained down on Cambodia as 40,000 Thais fled deadly Cambodian rocket attacks and Bangkok accused Phnom Penh of ‘war crimes’.