An estimated 38,000 civilians in Cambodia and almost 140,000 in Thailand reported to have fled fighting on their shared border.

Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia – Explosions reverberated in the distance along the Thai-Cambodia border, as a Cambodian soldier waited his turn for surgery to remove shrapnel embedded in his body from a Thai artillery shell.

The soldier said he was injured in fighting with Thai troops on Friday near the ancient Ta Moan Thom temple along the contested border separating the Cambodian province of Oddar Meanchey and the Thai province of Surin.

I have shrapnel in my back and it hasn’t been removed yet. I need surgery,” the soldier told Al Jazeera, lying in bed in a hospital corridor, his wife and son seated on the floor beside him.

“They took me to the military hospital first, but they didn’t have an X-ray [machine],” the soldier said.

“When I was hit, my clothes were blown off,” he added.

A second injured Cambodian soldier told how he took shrapnel to his left shoulder while fighting near the Ta Krabei temple, another disputed location on the Thai-Cambodia border.

Source: Aljazeera