By Sopheng Cheang
Associated Press
Saturday, October 4, 2008

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Oct. 3 -- Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand were wounded Friday in a brief clash near a disputed 900-year-old temple on their volatile border, officials from the two countries said.

Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said a Cambodian soldier was slightly wounded when Thai troops fired a grenade from their territory. He said Cambodian troops returned fire, with the "military incident" lasting less than a minute.

Thai officials initially denied knowledge of the incident, but a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman later said Cambodian troops had encroached on Thai territory and had been the first to fire, wounding two Thai soldiers.

Late Friday, the Foreign Ministry said the situation "has now returned to normalcy."

Tensions along the normally peaceful border between Cambodia and Thailand flared July 15, after UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, approved Cambodia's application to have the disputed 11th-century Preah Vihear temple named a World Heritage site. Friday's clash took place about two miles west of the temple.

A spokesman for Cambodia's cabinet, Phay Siphan, said the incident began after Cambodian troops intercepted a trespassing Thai patrol. He said the Thai troops retreated in response to a warning from the Cambodians but then fired the grenade. Cambodian troops returned fire with AK-47 assault rifles, he said.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said Friday evening that the Thai troops had been patrolling in their own territory when they encountered the Cambodian soldiers.

"The Cambodian troops shot at the Thai troops first, wounding two soldiers. One Cambodian soldier was also wounded after the Thais responded," he said.

Lt. Gen. Wiboonsak Ngeepan, the regional army commander for northeastern Thailand, said it was unclear if the Cambodians had intruded intentionally or strayed into Thailand because "the area is dense forest."

The Foreign Ministry statement said that Thai military officials contacted their Cambodian counterparts after the incident and that the Cambodians agreed to investigate the clash. It also said that Cambodia pledged to coordinate more closely with Thailand in the future.

Both countries have long claimed Preah Vihear, but the World Court awarded it to Cambodia in 1962. Sovereignty over some of the land around the temple, however, has not been clearly resolved.

After UNESCO approved the temple's listing as a World Heritage site, Thailand sent troops to occupy the nearby Keo Sikha Kiri Svara pagoda, also claimed by Cambodia.

Cambodia responded with its own troop deployment. The two sides came close to a shootout July 17.