Tensions along Cambodia's northern border with Thailand have been simmering since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a clash with Thai forces.

Bangkok and Phnom Penh have been fighting over territory disputed since colonial power France drew the border between them more than a century ago.

Thailand, bound to America by a treaty from 1954, appears so far to have the upper hand against Cambodia after air strikes by American-made F16 fighters. Undaunted, however, the Cambodians, armed with Chinese-made rifles,