Pete Ross

Our South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head reported last week from Thailand.

Now he's been to see the effects of the conflict on the Cambodian side of the border.

Along the forested ridge marking Cambodia's northern border with Thailand, fierce gun battles have continued for a second week as each army tries to gain control of a few hilltops.

The fighting is harder than it was the first time in July, the cost to both sides higher, but especially in the ranks of the Cambodian army.

Dr Sarchan Raksime, an anaesthetist who's been transferred from Phnom Penh to a provincial hospital to treat the wounded soldiers, showed me images on his phone of some of the terrible injuries he's encountered.

His hands shake and his eyes are rimmed with tears.

I've never seen anything like this in my life, he says.

In one corner, the young wife of a soldier whose arm has been amputated sits smiling to encourage him.

In another, the soldier with a shattered leg bandaged up to the thigh recalls how he was injured last weekend as Thai forces surged forward.

They just kept firing, he said, shells landing in my trench until one exploded close to me.

I don't remember much else.

Cambodia doesn't publish its military casualties, but the Thais estimate at least 500 of its soldiers have been killed this time.

On the Thai side, the toll is just 21, starkly illustrating the imbalance of forces between the two armies.

Thailand's air force has been able to fly unopposed over Cambodia,

bombing targets at will.

Right, we're standing now looking at a yawning gap on a high bridge over this river.

The gap is probably 20, 30 metres.

This was the result of bombs dropped by Thai F-16 fighters over the weekend.

There's twisted metal, shattered concrete and far below us we can see the river.

The Thais say that was to stop Cambodia from reinforcing its military units that are on the other side of the bridge.