PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia -- High on a cliff overlooking the jungles of northern Cambodia, heavily armed troops crouch in fortified bunkers on the grounds of an ancient temple turned modern-day battlefield.
The stone remains of Preah Vihear, built nearly 1,000 years ago, are supposed to be a protected U.N. World Heritage site. Instead they are at the heart of a dangerous tug-of-war between Cambodia and Thailand - one that has taken at least eight lives and forced 15,000 to flee in four days of clashes recently.
The battle over a hilly patch of land in this remote countryside is rooted in a decades-old border dispute that has fueled nationalist passions and been driven by domestic politics and conspiracy theories on both sides.
A fragile truce has held since Monday night, but the dispute remains unsettled, and troops are digging in for another round of combat.
The Cambodians filled fresh sandbags earlier this week, stacking them meticulously in 10 bunkers along one of the temple's low outer walls. It looks out over a ravine toward Thailand's sandbagged foxholes on the other side.
"We're just praying in our hearts for this to be over," said Hun Demong, a Buddhist monk who fled into a Cambodian army bunker after the fighting broke out on Feb. 4. "We only hope it will not start again."
With ornamental panels dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, Preah Vihear was a stunning achievement of the Angkorean empire, whose realm once took in parts of modern-day Thailand and Vietnam.
When the latest firing stopped, the great stone temple itself stood as a silent victim, small chunks of its darkened gray walls blown off by shrapnel from shells fired from Thailand.
The tail of an exploded rocket lay at the feet of a squatting Cambodian soldier atop the 160-step stairway at the temple's entrance. Along a stone causeway leading farther into the complex, an empty gun battery looked out over a charred hillside, its shredded trees and gnarled saplings bearing testament to the ferocity of the fighting.
A pool of dried blood spattered the floor under a sandstone archway, the spot one mortally wounded soldier was carried to by comrades after being hit by an artillery blast.
There is no simple answer to what sparked the latest fighting.
The temple has been the subject of an intense boundary dispute since French colonial forces withdrew from Cambodia in the 1950s.
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