BANGKOK -- Armed clashes have broken out between Thailand and Cambodia in long-disputed border areas, rapidly escalating months-long tensions.

Thailand bombed Cambodia with F-16 fighter jets on Thursday, as relations between the two countries imploded following clashes on a disputed border near the Emerald Triangle.

Sen has also been a key player in the recent hostilities, with some analysts describing him as the driving force behind the conflict.

The two nations have been locked in a decades-long conflict over their contested border. Tensions in disputed territories soured earlier this year.

Clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops at their disputed border have killed at least 12 people, Thai authorities say. The fighting marks an escalation of a dispute between the two South East Asian neighbours that dates back more than a century.

Cambodian President Hun Sen has denied reports claiming he fled to China amid an escalating war with Thailand. Thai media alleged Sen abandoned the country as border clashes intensified, but he refuted the claims,

Military skirmishes erupted between Thailand and Cambodia in what is being described as the worst conflict between the two Southeast Asian countries in a decade. More than 150,000 people have been evacuated on both sides with 33 dead in the clashes so far.

June, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was then-prime minister of Thailand, made a call to Cambodia’s de facto leader, Hun Sen, to address a recent escalation along the border between the two countries that had left a Cambodian soldier dead.

A personal feud between two of Southeast Asia’s political titans is inflaming the worst violence on the border in more than a decade.

The Royal Thai Army has strongly condemned systematic attacks on Thai civilian targets by Cambodian forces, whilst dismissing claims that Thai troops have seized the disputed Preah Vihear temple as "fake news".