THAILAND’S Government said a rocket attack from Cambodia on Sunday killed a 63-year-old villager, its first civilian death reported as a direct result of combat over the past week along the border of the two Southeast Asiannations. Both countries confirmed that large-scale fighting,which was set off by as kirmish on December 7 that wounded twoThai soldiers,continued on Sunday.The two sides are battling over long standing competing claims to patches off rontier land,some of which contain centuries-old temple ruins.

 

More than two dozen people on both sides of the border have officially been reported killed in the pastweek’s fighting,while more than half a million have been displaced. Reporters from ‘The Associated Press’arrived at the scene of Sunday’s rocket impact in Sisaket province’sKantharalak District about 10minutes after it hit.They witnessed the body of a man totally wrapped in band ages being put on a stretcher that was taken to an ambulance.

 

A house a couple of hundred metres away was in flames,with village volunteers attempting to put out the fire with buckets of water. A piece of shrapnel believed to be from the same rocket was embedded nearby in the road.The victim, identified as Don Patcha pan,was killed in the heart of a residential area near a school,according to aThai Army statement Evacuees line upto receive soup from local charity as they take refuge inWat Prasat Srahkandal,Banteay Menchey province, Cambodiaon Sunday,after fleeing home following fighting between Thailandand Cambodia.