Thai Marines Reclaim Ban Sam Lang, 350 Hill Fight Rattles Eastern Border
The narrow dirt roads that trace Thailand’s eastern frontier are suddenly back on the national radar. Fresh clashes with Cambodian troops have thrust Trat’s Ban Sam Lang, Surin’s 350 Hill, and the ancient site of Prasat Ta Kwai into the headlines, reminding residents that the border remains volatile even when most of the country is preparing for New Year travel.
Quick look before you scroll
• Thai Marines regained full control of Ban Sam Lang in Trat after an afternoon firefight and planted the national flag on the riverside embankment.
• Fighting on 350 Hill, a treeless rise overlooking Prasat Ta Kwai, continues despite Thai troops claiming the summit on 20 December.
• BM-21 rockets, drones, and heavy artillery have damaged more than 130 civilian sites across six Thai provinces since 7 December.
• Bangkok is preparing a dossier for international bodies accusing Phnom Penh of indiscriminate attacks and antipersonnel-mine use.
Marines turn the tide in Trat
Residents of Chum Rak sub-district woke on Friday to sporadic thuds from the Cambodian side. By mid-afternoon, a Cambodian platoon attempted to rush Ban Sam Lang’s river crossing, hoping to punch through a thin line of Thai rangers. The Royal Thai Marine Corps, backed by 120 mm mortars and drone surveillance, counter-attacked, forcing the intruders back across the water. When the smoke cleared, a blue-white-red tricolour fluttered over the reclaimed embankment—symbolically important, commanders say, because the hamlet guards a supply trail to Laem Ngop deep-sea pier, a lifeline for coastal trade.
350 Hill: high ground, heavy cost
Surin’s Phanom Dong Rak range has always lured tacticians; whoever owns the ridgeline spies deep into the other side’s territory. On 18-20 December, Thai infantry fought through densely-laid landmines and RPG fire to retake the windswept knob locals call Bua Yai. The Second Army confirmed two Thai fatalities remain on the slope, unreachable because Cambodian troops ring the area with sniper screens and booby-traps. Bangkok is now air-lifting mine-clearing robots—first used on the Myanmar border last year—to carve a safe corridor for recovery teams.
Civilian fallout stretches across the Northeast
Artillery doesn’t recognise provincial boundaries. Since hostilities reignited on 7 December, the Interior Ministry says:
• 27 homes flattened or burned in Kok Sung and Taphraya districts of Sa Kaeo.
• 1 civilian death in Buriram’s Ban Dan from a direct BM-21 strike.
• Five temples, a clinic, and a primary school damaged within 5 km of the frontier.Displacement centres now shelter 18,874 people, nearly all from Khun Han and Kantharalak in Si Sa Ket. Donations of rice, blankets, and fuel for water pumps are still welcome through the Thai Red Cross branches in each provincial town.
Tech-driven tactics reshape the battlefield
Military briefings increasingly mention FPV “kamikaze” drones, once a novelty, now the most feared weapon on the line. Analysts at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy note that both armies fly more than 50 sorties a day, using off-the-shelf quadcopters rigged with grenades to drop on trenches. Meanwhile, Cambodian crews have launched at least 200 BM-21 Grad rockets—Soviet-era workhorses capable of saturating a four-hectare grid in seconds. Thai gunners counter with 155 mm howitzers and occasional F-16 air-strikes, claiming multiple hits on enemy ammo depots hidden near the border pagodas.
Diplomatic front heats up
Phnom Penh accuses Bangkok of “territorial intrusion” and cites an October cease-fire it alleges Thailand broke. The Thai Foreign Ministry counters that Cambodian statements are “materially false,” insisting Thai fire is aimed only at verified military positions. China has floated itself as mediator, but veteran ASEAN observers doubt either side will let an outsider dictate terms while strategic hills remain contested.
What Thai residents should keep in mind
• Highways 33 and 348 toward the frontier are open, yet checkpoints enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew within 10 km of the wire—plan detours if you drive freight to Si Sa Ket or Surin.• Drone hobbyists anywhere near restricted zones risk arrest; authorities have grounded all civilian UAVs within 30 km of active artillery.• Thai citizens working in Cambodia can still register for repatriation flights through the embassy in Phnom Penh. Land exits remain closed by the Cambodian side.
The road ahead
Field commanders believe the skirmishes will grind on until at least mid-January, when the region’s annual dry-season manoeuvres usually peak. Bangkok’s legal team hopes its evidence package on cluster-munitions and land-mine use reaches Geneva before that. For now, life in most Thai towns carries on as usual, but the distant rumble along the treeline is a reminder that border stability—like any flag planted on a contested hill—must be renewed day after day.
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