Thailand and Cambodia exchanged heavy artillery fire continues on Friday.

Despite calls from the region and beyond for an immediate ceasefire in an escalating border conflict that has killed at least 16 people.

Thailand’s military reported clashes from before dawn in the Ubon Ratchathani and Surin provinces and said Cambodia had used artillery and Russian-made BM-21 rocket systems.

Authorities said 100,000 people had been evacuated from conflict areas on the Thai side.

“Cambodian forces have conducted sustained bombardment utilising heavy weapons, field artillery and BM-21 rocket systems,” the Thai military said in a statement.

“Thai forces have responded with appropriate supporting fire in accordance with the tactical situation.”

Both sides are being targeted by each other’s blames , for starting the conflict on Thursday, on the disputed border area.

The fight escalated quickly from small armed fire to heavy shelling in at least six locations 209 km (130 miles) apart along a frontier where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century.

Reuters journalists in the province of Surin reported hearing of intermittent bursts of explosions, amid heavy presence of armed Thai soldiers along roads and gas stations in the largely Agrarian area on Friday.

In military Thai convoy, a dozen trucks, armoured vehicles and tanks, cut across provincial roads ringed by paddy fields and moved towards the border.

The fighting erupted on Thursday just hours after Thailand recalled its ambassador to Phnom Penh the previous night and expelled Cambodia’s envoy, in response to a second Thai soldier losing a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently by rival troops. Cambodia has dismissed that as baseless.

DEATH TOLL RISES

According to the health ministry, Thai death toll rose to 15 as of early Friday, 14 of them were civilians. It said 46 people were wounded, including 15 soldiers.

Cambodia’s national government has not provided details of any casualties or evacuations of civilians. A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest clashes.

Spokesperson for the provincial administration of Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province said Meth Meas Pheakdey, one civilian had been killed and five were wounded, with 1,500 families evacuated.

Thailand had positioned six F-16 fighter jets on Thursday in a rare combat deployment, one of which was mobilised to strike a Cambodian military target, among measures Cambodia called “reckless and brutal military aggression”.

According to the London- based international Institute for strategic studies, F-16 fighters were used by Thailand for military advantage over Cambodia.

Cambodia has no fighter aircrafts of its own, and its less defense hardware and personnel.

The United States, a long-time treaty ally of Thailand, called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and a peaceful resolution.”