Cambodia fires shells in disputed border area with Thailand (Extra)

Feb 4, 2011, 9:33 GMT

Bangkok - Cambodian forces Friday fired artillery rounds into in Thailand near the disputed Preah Vihear temple site on the Thai-Cambodian border, military sources said.

An estimated 20 shells landed on Thailand's side of the border in Kantalarak district in Si Sa Ket province, 350 kilometres east of Bangkok, Thai radio reports said.

'We can confirm that there has been a clash, but we are still checking the details,' army spokesman Colonel Sansern Keowkhamnerd said.

The army was reportedly bulldozing a road in the border area, which has been the subject of numerous spats over the past two and a half years.

Thai and Cambodian forces have faced off along the mountain range around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple since July 2008, when UNESCO declared the edifice a World Heritage Site despite Thai objections.

Although the World Court on 1962 ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia, Thailand claims a 4.6 kilometres plot of land adjacent to the temple, and has blocked Cambodian's efforts to turn the site into a tourism attraction until the border dispute is settled.

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