In response Hun Sen issued an ultimatum, calling for Ranariddh to make a choice between siding with the Khmer Rouge or with the coalition government. Eleven days later, he stopped working with Ranariddh altogether. On 3 July 1997, while travelling to Phnom Penh, Ranariddh encountered troops aligned to the CPP. These troops persuaded his bodyguards to surrender their weapons, which prompted him to flee Cambodia the following day. On 5 July, fighting broke out between RCAF troops separately aligned to CPP and FUNCINPEC, after CPP-aligned generals unsuccessfully attempted to coax FUNCINPEC-aligned troops into surrendering their weapons. The FUNCINPEC-aligned units suffered major casualties the following day, and subsequently fled from Phnom Penh to the border town of O Smach in Oddar Meanchey Province.