Thailand’s Eastern Border Under Siege as Rockets and Drones Displace 170,000

Thai commanders say the border just east of Surin now sounds like a thunderstorm that never pauses. In the past four days alone, thousands of BM-21 Grad rockets, swarms of kamikaze drones and dozens of artillery rounds have ripped across no-man’s-land, leaving at least 9 Thai soldiers dead, 82 wounded and forcing more than 170,000 civilians into makeshift shelters. The casualty count on the Cambodian side is unclear, but field intelligence puts the figure at 60-plus fatalities.

In brief

• Cambodia has fired more than 5,000 rockets and at least 150 FPV drones since 7 December.

• Thai forces have answered with F-16 air strikes and counter-battery fire while trying to limit harm to border villages.

• Bangkok has filed two formal protests at the United Nations and hinted that further escalation “cannot be ruled out.”

Border flashpoints multiply overnight

The heaviest blows landed on Chong An Ma, Chong Bok and the forested saddle around ช่องอานม้า, areas locals usually associate with bamboo shoots and cross-border trade. Overnight, fresh salvos were recorded at บ้านคลองแผง in Sa Kaeo and near the hospital in Phanom Dong Rak district, a spot the army insists has no military value. Infantry officers on the ground told reporters the attack pattern is “spray, scoot, spray again,” a textbook use of the truck-mounted 40-tube launcher that Soviet engineers first fielded in the 1960s.

BM-21: old Cold War iron, still terrifying in 2025

Each 122 mm rocket weighs about 66 kg and travels up to 40 km. It carries enough high explosive to shred light armour—or, as villagers in โคกสูง discovered, level wooden farmhouses. Experts say the weapon’s power lies in sheer volume: “Forty rounds in twenty seconds blankets an area the size of a football pitch,” notes a retired Thai artillery colonel. The flip side is poor accuracy, which is why shells have repeatedly landed in cassava fields, markets and, on Tuesday, within 500 m of Phanom Dong Rak Hospital.

Drones turn the sky into a cheap kill zone

While rockets dominate the headlines, tactical officers worry even more about the FPV kamikaze drones buzzing in just metres above the treeline. Built from off-the-shelf parts and guided via first-person goggles, the tiny craft can swerve past radar and deliver a 2 kg warhead through a bunker window. Signals analysts picked up at least 33 distinct drone swarms on 9 December alone, some apparently piloted by English-speaking operators—a hint, Thai intelligence says, that foreign trainers or mercenaries may be lending a hand.

Human price mounts on both sides of the frontier

Emergency rooms in Ubon Ratchathani, Si Sa Ket, Surin and Buri Ram now resemble wartime triage units. Army medics confirm 171,681 residents have registered at temporary shelters; many left with nothing but a phone and the clothes they were wearing when rockets started falling. Across the border, Phnom Penh’s local authorities concede that entire hamlets near Oddar Meanchey are emptying out, though precise numbers remain contested.

Bangkok’s two-track response: diplomacy plus firepower

The Foreign Ministry delivered twin protest notes to Cambodia this week and circulated a third letter to the UN Security Council, arguing that the rocket attacks violate the UN Charter’s Article 2(4) on the use of force. Simultaneously, the Second Army has deployed counter-battery radars, activated air-defence units around Khon Kaen air base and authorised precision F-16 sorties against ammunition dumps opposite บ้านหนองจาน. Senior officers stress that strikes are calibrated to avoid civilian buildings, but they also warn that “if rockets keep falling, heavier options remain on the table.”

Why people in Thailand should care

Border commerce worth roughly ฿100 billion a year is now on hold. Daily queues of trucks loaded with jasmine rice, fruit and auto parts stretch twenty kilometres at Aranyaprathet–Poipet and Chong Chom–O Smach crossings. Tourism operators in Si Sa Ket and Surin report cancellations through January, while rubber farmers fear lost harvests if fields stay inside the artillery envelope. Geopolitically, analysts note that prolonged clashes could draw in outside powers eager to sell counter-drone systems or exploit rare-earth deposits straddling the frontier.

What happens next?

Military planners outline three scenarios:

De-escalation within a week if ASEAN mediators broker a cease-fire and both sides pull back heavy weapons eight kilometres from the line.

Protracted artillery duel where tit-for-tat rocket and drone strikes persist but neither army attempts a ground thrust.

Rapid escalation featuring Thailand’s full air power and, potentially, precision strikes deep into Cambodian logistics hubs—an option the Cabinet would need to approve.

For now, residents on both sides can only watch the skyline—and pray the next rocket lands somewhere else.