New clashes between troops loyal to rival leaders

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Cambodia's capital was tense on Thursday after new confrontations between troops loyal to the country's rival leaders.

The clashes, including gunfire that left three dead, escalated tensions in an already uneasy coalition between First Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Differences between the two -- who have been in a power struggle for more than a year -- also have derailed talks with Khmer Rouge rebels who reportedly are ready to trade their longtime leader, Pol Pot, for peace.

In the latest friction, troops loyal to Hun Sen's formerly communist Cambodian People's Party (CPP) blocked a convoy of 20 pickup trucks carrying senior officials, police and soldiers aligned with Ranariddh's royalist party.

Hun Sen's supporters claimed the royalist troops were making unauthorized movements. A one-hour standoff ensued at the checkpoint, 25 miles north of Phnom Penh.

Armored personnel carriers and soldiers armed with rocket launchers and heavy machine guns were deployed at the roadside.

The royalist partisans were all disarmed, said Maj. Gen. Tum Sambol, the prince's security adviser.

"If the CPP continues to move troops against us we think there's going to be a problem, civil war," said Serey Kosal, another of Ranariddh's security advisers.

Thursday's standoff came a day after fighting between the two factions at the Preak Taten naval base on the Tonle Sap River, about 20 miles northwest of Phnom Penh.

Sok Phal, chief of the Interior Ministry's information department, said three people were killed and three were injured. It was not clear on which side the victims were fighting.

It was a second time in two weeks the two sides had exchanged gunfire. On June 17, two of Ranariddh's bodyguards were killed in street fighting in the capital.

Reporter John Raedler and Reuters contributed to this report.

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