Hun Sen finally seizes O'Smach
Hun Sen finally seizes O'Smach
CHONG CHOM PASS, Thailand (Agencies): Cambodian troops loyal to strongman Hun Sen overran O'Smach, the last frontier town held by his ousted co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh, witnesses said yesterday.
They said a pocket of fewer than 50 of Ranariddh's soldiers abandoned their last position near the border before sunset yesterday, taking with them a portrait of King Norodom Sihanouk from a wall of a pavilion on the edge of O'Smach.
Some of the troops were seen leaving the town on an armored personnel carrier while others followed on foot, apparently heading toward Anlong Veng, stronghold of the Khmer Rouge who are also fighting Hun Sen.
Witnesses said gunfire died down in O'Smach after Ranariddh's forces gave up resistance but journalists monitoring the fighting still did not see Hun Sen's soldiers moving up to secure the border.
Thai military sources estimated that each side lost about 50 soldiers during 10 days of clashes at O'Smach.
They said at least four wounded Ranariddh supporters were permitted to enter Thailand yesterday for medical treatment. Many of their colleagues had earlier fled into nearby jungles or mixed with Cambodian civilian refugees taking shelter on the border.
But Thai military sources did not confirm the fall of O'Smach.
Fighting was visible from the Thai border inside Cambodia. An armored personnel carrier manned by forces loyal to Ranariddh could be seen on a ridge 200 meters inside Cambodia firing its machine gun.
It was the first time since fighting began nearly two weeks ago that such a large number of troops in full battle gear were seen so close to the frontier.
Thai troops and Border Patrol Police were put on full alert and moved their wood-reinforced bunkers 60 meters back. They manned machine gun emplacements and kept rocket-propelled grenade launchers at hand.
Thai officers ordered their men to be prepared to fire. They expressed fear that if Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC forces sought refuge on Thai soil, Hun Sen's men would keep shooting in the heat of the battle.
A high-ranking Thai officer said Hun Sen's forces -- which had been unable to fulfill his orders to take O'Smach by Aug. 15 - were reinforced with heavy weapons and as many as 500 troops in recent days. They are believed to number between 3,000 and 7,000, compared to about 2,000 for Ranariddh.
Analysts in Phnom Penh said the fall of the royalist stronghold would not necessarily mean an end to the fighting in Cambodia.
They pointed to Hun Sen's remarks earlier this week that he would seize Anlong Veng from the Khmer Rouge next, and to comments from government officials who said they were ready to take on the Khmer Rouge.
"We will crack down on all anarchic forces," co-Defense Minister Tea Banh said yesterday. "Anlong Veng is the next step."
Witnesses said O'Smach, a town in northwestern Cambodia close to the Thai border, fell after six hours of intense, close-range fighting. One witness said he heard tens of thousands of rounds of gunfire and mortar shelling exchanged between the two sides.
Ranariddh's troops said earlier that their leader at O'Smach, Gen. Nhiek Bun Chhay, was not with the last defending soldiers.
Some said he had crossed into Thailand Saturday for medical treatment.
Fighting erupted in western Cambodia after Second Prime Minister Hun Sen staged a bloody takeover against Ranariddh in Phnom Penh on July 6. The two had headed an uneasy coalition government that emerged from United Nations-sponsored elections in 1993.
Hun Sen steadily gained the upper hand across Cambodia, and cornered the last of Ranariddh's forces in O'Smach.
More than 21,000 Cambodians fled O'Smach through Chong Chom Pass into Thailand last week as Hun Sen's soldiers closed in on the town.