Cambodia troops bunkered at cliff-top Khmer temple

COLOMBO: England's Alastair Cook plays a shot during the second day of the second and final Test match against Sri Lanka here Wednesday. — AFP Photo

PREAH VIHEAR, (Cambodia), Feb 9 (AP): Hundreds of Cambodian soldiers were camped Wednesday at a cliff-top Khmer temple and World Heritage site in the line of fire in deadly border skirmishes with Thailand.

Cambodia's government denies that it deploys soldiers at the millenium-old Preah Vihear temple - seeking to avoid the impression it would deliberately put the site in danger or use it as a shield - and has accused Thailand of seriously damaging the complex in an artillery barrage.

However, reporters who have reached the temple have found hundreds of soldiers bunkered there.