Thailand on Wednesday released 18 Cambodian soldiers held for five months as prisoners of war, days after a fresh truce between the nations ended weeks of deadly fighting along their contested frontier.
A decades-old border dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbours erupted into military clashes several times this year, with the latest round of fighting in December killing dozens of people and displacing more than a million.
Some of the 18 soldiers, with closely cropped hair, smiled, waved and gestured with their palms pressed together to cheering crowds through the windows of a bus in the border province of Pailin, video from Cambodian state television showed.
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“I am so happy. I can’t wait to see him. I miss him so much,” said 51-year-old Voeung Vy, the father of one of the soldiers captured in July.
He said he would welcome his son home in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said the 18 soldiers were “released and safely returned to the motherland” through a border crossing on Wednesday morning after being detained for 155 days.