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Arab News
a day ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Thailand-Cambodia border calm as military commanders hold talks
BANGKOK: Military commanders from Thailand and Cambodia held talks on Tuesday, as calm return to their disputed border and displaced residents began trickling back, following the Southeast Asian neighbors announcing a truce to end five days of fighting. Thai and Cambodian leaders met in Malaysia on Monday and agreed to a ceasefire deal to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade that has killed at least 40 people, mostly civilians, and displaced over 300,000 in both countries. Although Thailand's military said that there had been attacks by Cambodian troops in at least five locations early on Tuesday, violating the ceasefire that had come into effect from midnight, commanders from both sides met and held talks, a Thai army spokesman said. This includes negotiations between the general leading Thailand's second region army, which oversees the stretch of the frontier that has seen the heaviest fighting during the conflict, and his Cambodian counterpart, Thai Major Gen. Winthai Suvaree told reporters. The commanders, who met at the border, agreed to maintain the ceasefire, stop any troop movement, and facilitate the return of the wounded and dead bodies, he said. 'Each side will establish a coordinating team of four to resolve any problems,' Winthai said. In Bangkok, Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who traveled to the Malaysian capital to secure the truce deal, said he had spoken to Cambodia's defense minister and calm had returned to border area. 'There is no escalation,' Phumtham told reporters. 'Right now things are calm.' Maly Socheata, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Defense Ministry, said at a briefing on Tuesday that there had been no new fighting along the border. Vehicular traffic and daily activity resumed in the Kantharalak district of Thailand's Sisaket province on Tuesday, about 30km from the frontlines, where Thai and Cambodian troops remain amassed. Chaiya Phumjaroen, 51, said he returned to town to reopen his shop early on Tuesday, after hearing of the ceasefire deal on the news. 'I am very happy that a ceasefire happened,' he said. 'If they continue to fight, we have no opportunity to make money.' In Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, 63-year-old Ly Kim Eng sat in front of a makeshift tarpaulin shelter, waiting for directions after hearing of the ceasefire deal. 'So, if the authorities announce it is safe for all of the refugees to return home, I would immediately return,' he said.
Reuters
a day ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Thailand-Cambodia border calm as military commanders hold talks
BANGKOK, July 29 (Reuters) - Military commanders from Thailand and Cambodia held talks on Tuesday, as calm return to their disputed border and displaced residents began trickling back, following the Southeast Asian neighbours announcing a truce to end five days of fighting. Thai and Cambodian leaders met in Malaysia on Monday and agreed to a ceasefire deal to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade that has killed at least 40 people, mostly civilians, and displaced over 300,000 in both countries. Although Thailand's military said that there had been attacks by Cambodian troops in at least five locations early on Tuesday, violating the ceasefire that had come into effect from midnight, commanders from both sides met and held talks, a Thai army spokesman said. This includes negotiations between the general leading Thailand's 2nd region army, which oversees the stretch of the frontier that has seen the heaviest fighting during the conflict, and his Cambodian counterpart, Thai Major Gen. Winthai Suvaree told reporters. The commanders, who met at the border, agreed to maintain the ceasefire, stop any troop movement, and facilitate the return of the wounded and dead bodies, he said. "Each side will establish a coordinating team of four to resolve any problems," Winthai said. In Bangkok, Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who travelled to the Malaysian capital to secure the truce deal, said he had spoken to Cambodia's defence minister and calm had returned to border area. "There is no escalation," Phumtham told reporters. "Right now things are calm." Maly Socheata, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Defence Ministry, said at a briefing on Tuesday that there had been no new fighting along the border. Vehicular traffic and daily activity resumed in the Kantharalak district of Thailand's Sisaket province on Tuesday, about 30 km (20 miles) from the frontlines, where Thai and Cambodian troops remain amassed. Chaiya Phumjaroen, 51, said he returned to town to reopen his shop early on Tuesday, after hearing of the ceasefire deal on the news. "I am very happy that a ceasefire happened," he said. "If they continue to fight, we have no opportunity to make money." In Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, 63-year-old Ly Kim Eng sat in front of a makeshift tarpaulin shelter, waiting for directions after hearing of the ceasefire deal. "So, if the authorities announce it is safe for all of the refugees to return home, I would immediately return," he said. The Southeast Asian neighbours have wrangled for decades over their disputed frontier and have been on a conflict footing since the killing of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish late in May, which led to a troop buildup on both sides and a full-blown diplomatic crisis. Monday's peace talks came after a sustained push by Malaysian Premier Anwar Ibrahim and U.S. President Donald Trump, with the latter warning Thai and Cambodian leaders that trade negotiations would not progress if fighting continued. Thailand and Cambodia face a tariff of 36% on their goods in the U.S., their biggest export market, unless a reduction can be negotiated. After the ceasefire deal was reached, Trump said he had spoken to both leaders and had instructed his trade team to restart tariff talks. Pichai Chunhavajira, Thailand's finance minister, said on Tuesday that trade talks with Washington are expected to be concluded before August 1, and that U.S. tariffs on the country are not expected to be as high as 36%. The ceasefire deal reflected a rare convergence of interest between the U.S. and China, which also pushed for the talks, but the agreement itself remained fragile and third-party monitoring was essential to keep it in place, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "The ceasefire agreement has to be enforced," he said. "It cannot be left to Thailand and Cambodia to implement because the hostilities are running so deep now."
Daily Mail
13-07-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: The haunting truth behind the 'Battle of Los Angeles' that saw city 'attacked' for 2 hours
On February 24, 1942, Los Angeles erupted in chaos as anti-aircraft guns unleashed a barrage into the night sky, but a historian says there was nothing up there to hit. The so-called 'Battle of Los Angeles' took place just 11 weeks after the Japanese navy's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor dragged the US into World War II. With Americans gripped by fear of a Japanese invasion of the West Coast, Dr Mark Felton, a historian and author, told the Daily Mail five people lost their lives as unexploded munitions rained down on the city during the air raid. Military commanders initially claimed Japanese bombers had been spotted on their way to attack, and that eventually led to to even more wild speculation that enemy agents or even UFOs were invading Southern California. However, when the sirens faded and the guns went silent along the coast, no enemy planes were ever found. The incident was later deemed a false alarm triggered by a stray meteorological balloon mistaken for an enemy aircraft. Felton called the event a stark example of 'war nerves,' with jittery troops and civilians primed for an assault that never came. Making things even worse, a real attack had just rocked the California coast the day before. A Japanese submarine had just shelled an oil field near Santa Barbara, marking the first attack on the American mainland since 1812. 'The Americans expected some sort of Pearl Harbor-like carrier plane attack on the US West Coast, so tension was very high, exacerbated only the day before by the shelling of the Ellwood Oil Refinery,' Felton said. The historian and Youtuber added that anti-aircraft battery units were ready to shoot down any suspicious aircraft approaching the mainland, leading to the tragic miscalculation. 'The combined number of guns within LA could place 48 flak shells into the sky every minute, creating a perilous curtain of fire for any would-be bombers to penetrate,' Felton revealed. On the night of February 24, anti-aircraft guns were on alert across the whole city, and 10,000 air raid wardens stood ready. A blip on the radar screen was formally identified as an unknown aircraft at 2:07am PT. That's when the first 'yellow alert' was posted. A blue alert then went out which signaled to military and local police that the aircraft was believed to be hostile. Three minutes later, a red alert was issued. At 2:25am, air raid sirens started wailing across Los Angeles, and thousands of wardens and police officers spilled into the streets. Searchlights raked across the sky in search of the mystery aircraft, which military gun batteries still hadn't seen or confirmed was even real. Despite not seeing a Japanese bomber, at 3:16am, all of the anti-aircraft guns suddenly opened fire, launching hundreds of shells that exploded like fireworks above the city. The guns ceased firing at 3:36am, with search lights still probing the sky again. At 4:05am, the flak guns started firing again. The chaotic night saw 10 tons of shells blasted into the sky across Los Angeles, as explosions echoed across the city and five citizens died from heart attacks and car accidents tied to the incident. The guns eventually stopped, but not until 1,440 rounds had been fired into the sky. While many exploded at pre-set altitudes, others fell back to Earth and detonated over homes across the city. 'Some of the larger three inch shells that had failed to explode in mid air detonated instead when they began impacting all over LA houses and garages were damaged as white hot shards of shrapnel ripped through homes, often narrowly missing terrified residents,' Felton revealed. As the sun came up later that morning, Army bomb disposal teams went to work roping off streets from curious bystanders and finding live shells which had buried themselves in roads and gardens. After the battle, reporters claimed 50 enemy aircraft had bombed the city. American military reports suggested a force of up to 25 to 30 aircraft tried to invade the West Coast. However, both of these stories would have required a Japanese aircraft carrier to be in the area, which was not the case. At this point, authorities suggested that the aircraft spotted on radar might have been a civilian plane, piloted by enemy agents. In the end, authorities had to admit the truth: no Japanese aircraft had attacked Los Angeles. The skies were empty and the sound and fury of the anti-aircraft batteries were firing at nothing. On February 26, the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, officially declared that the raid had been a 'false alarm.' 'The incident is famous as an example of 'war nerves' - basically, the troops were on edge, pent-up and ready for anything, and it didn't take much to trigger such a response,' Felton said. 'It is also an example of military incompetence from the high command down to battery commanders, all of whom were expecting a Japanese attack,' he added. 'Once the firing started, the impression of an enemy attack was further exacerbated by the imagination of gunners who claimed to see or hear planes in the night sky, stray US flares in the sky and AA [anti-aircraft] shells landing in LA and exploding, looking like falling Japanese bombs.'
Al Jazeera
29-06-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Week in Pictures: From Israel's Gaza offensive to protests in Serbia
A look at some of the top photos of the past week. Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip mourn their loved ones at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo] Published On 29 Jun 2025 29 Jun 2025 From the solemn funeral procession honouring Iranian military commanders, among others killed in Israeli strikes, to the catastrophic flooding that ravaged Venezuela, here is a look at some of the top photographs of the week.
BBC News
28-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Iran holds state funeral for military leaders killed in Israel conflict
A state funeral is taking place in Iran for around 60 people, including military commanders and nuclear scientists, killed during the 12-day conflict with draped in the Iranian flag, bearing portraits of deceased commanders were flanked by large crowds near Enghelab Square in central conflict ended with a ceasefire earlier this week, after the US became directly involved by bombing key nuclear sites in those being laid to rest is Mohammad Bagheri, the highest-ranking military officer in Iran who was chief of staff of Iran's armed forces. Huge crowds of mourners dressed in black chanted slogans, waved Iranian flags and held portraits of those killed. Saturday's funeral will also include Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, as well as a number of nuclear scientists such as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was head of Azad University in Tehran. It comes after US President Donald Trump said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran to a question from the BBC's Nomia Iqbal at a White House press briefing on Friday, he said he would "without question" attack the country if intelligence concluded Iran could enrich uranium to concerning has also repeated his assertions that Iran was "decimated", writing: "Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the war with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie."Trump also claimed to have known "exactly where he [Khamenei] was sheltered", saying he "would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces... terminate his life"."I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death, and he does not have to say, 'thank-you, president Trump!'" Trump posted on his Truth Social foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned Trump against making "disrespectful" comments about Khamenei, who claimed US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites had achieved "nothing significant"."If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei," Araghchi posted on X."The Great and Powerful Iranian People, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had no choice but to run to 'Daddy' to avoid being flattened by our Missiles, do not take kindly to Threats and Insults."Araghchi has admitted that "excessive and serious" damage was done to Iran's nuclear sites by the recent bombings.
