Fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces continued on Saturday morning, hours after US President Donald Trump said the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he told Trump that a ceasefire would only be possible after Cambodia withdrew all its forces and removed landmines.
He wrote on social media: “Thailand will continue to carry out military actions until we feel no further damage and threats to our land and our people. I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning have already spoken.”
Shelling continued through the night as Thai forces pushed to seize several strategic points along the border.
At least 21 people have been killed in the new fighting and 700,000 have been evacuated on both sides.
Trump had claimed earlier in the week that he could stop the fighting between Thai and Cambodian forces that broke out on Monday simply by picking up the phone.
After speaking with both prime ministers on Friday night, he wrote on social media that the two countries had agreed to “stop shooting starting tonight” and return to the agreement they signed in front of the US president in October.
“Both countries are ready for peace,” he wrote.
However, Anutin said he told Trump that Thailand was not the aggressor and that Cambodia needed to show that it had withdrawn its forces and removed landmines from the border before a ceasefire was possible. “You have to show it to us first,” he said.
There was no mention of using tariffs as leverage to force the two sides to withdraw, as happened in July.
Thailand has warned the United States not to link the conflict to trade.
On Saturday, Cambodia reported that it had been hit by more Thai airstrikes.
“On December 13, 2025, the Thai military used two F-16 fighter jets to drop seven bombs” on several targets, Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said in an X publication.
“Thai military planes have not stopped bombing yet,” he said.
The Thai military also confirmed that fighting was continuing.
The long-running border dispute escalated on July 24, when Cambodia launched a barrage of rockets at Thailand, which responded with airstrikes.
Both countries have accused each other of starting the attacks.
After days of intense fighting that left dozens dead, neighboring Southeast Asian countries agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” brokered by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. This was formalized at a ceremony in Malaysia in October, presided over by the president of the United States.
However, both sides continued to trade accusations of ceasefire violations, and Thailand released evidence that Cambodian troops planted landmines, resulting in seven Thai soldiers losing limbs. Cambodia says the mines are remnants of the 1980s civil war.
Since then, tensions continued to rise.
This week, Thailand launched airstrikes inside Cambodia after two of its soldiers were injured in a skirmish last Sunday. Cambodia has responded with rocket bombardments. Fighting affected six provinces in northeastern Thailand and six provinces in northern and northwestern Cambodia.
The two countries have been disputing their 800 kilometer land border for more than a century. The border was drawn by French cartographers in 1907, when France was the colonial ruler in Cambodia.
