Police detained a Cambodian family living in Thailand over fears they were spying on Thai forces.

Officers stormed the rural home in Trat province, where they found Raya Ngaet, 18, and her parents, on December 15.

The trio were living in a remote, run-down bungalow in Ban Laem Hin village near the border.

Police scoured the home for illegal items but found none. They also seized four mobile phones.

Despite the lack of evidence, all three residents were taken to the Trat City Police Station for questioning on suspicion of acting as informants for the Cambodian army.

Police said both parents were labourers in Thailand, while their daughter Raya, was an unregistered person, born in Cambodia and raised in Trat province since she was a child. She uses a student card as identification.

Investigations found that the teenager is the wife of Cambodian army commander Police Colonel Sot Som Ol in Battambang, Cambodia, with whom she has a child.

The pair were said to have met in Trat province and were married before the border clashes erupted.

Raya has denied being a spy, saying she has never sent any sensitive intelligence to Cambodia.

A Trat police spokesman said: 'The police are not yet convinced and have confiscated all their mobile phones for further examination. All three individuals have been detained for questioning and further investigation.'

Fighting flared up earlier this month as the Thai army claimed Cambodian troops fired on a Thai engineering team building an access road in a disputed border area.

At least 15 Thai soldiers and one civilian have been killed since fighting resumed. In Cambodia, at least 11 civilians have died, while the number of soldiers dead is believed to be much higher.

Around 600,000 people have been displaced on both sides of the border.

Cambodia's assault has largely been wayward, unguided rockets fired indiscriminately into Thai territory, while Thailand has used precision drone strikes and fighter jet strikes on military sites.

Former Khmer Rouge henchman and Cambodian dictator Hun Sen has repeatedly claimed that he wants peace and that Thailand is the aggressor.

Thai officials claim the ongoing border confrontations are a threat to national security, and the areas must be secured.

It has since emerged that Cambodia is paying five US lobbying firms almost 300,000 USD a month to 'wage an information war against Thailand', according to reports in local media.

Disgraced American lobbyist, Michael Alfaro or Michael B Alfaro, even posed as a 'White House correspondent' to access sensitive border areas and senior levels of the Cambodian government earlier this year. He was subsequently exposed by local media as a 'fake journalist'. Military chiefs and AI analysis have also shown that images he posted of the clashes are faked, doctored, or misrepresented.