Fifty years after US bombs rained down on Cambodia during the Vietnam War, few expected the country to once again face a barrage of airstrikes. Yet in December 2025 Thai F-16 jets dropped cluster bombs on Cambodian territory, forcing civilians to flee and adding to the deadly legacy of unexploded landmines that still maim people today.
It was a sharp escalation in a century-old border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. Over the course of December, fighting left more than 100 people dead and displaced 600,000.
