Eritrea attacks on new front: Ethiopian claim

Eritrea attacks on new front: Ethiopian claim

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters): Ethiopia said yesterday that Eritrea had launched a new attack at the eastern end of their border, close to the Red Sea port of Assab.

Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse told Reuters that Eritrean forces had attacked Ethiopian positions early yesterday, but that further details were not immediately available.

There was no confirmation of the Assab fighting from Eritrea, but if correct it marks a significant development in the border conflict that erupted on May 6.

Until hostilities began, Assab, one of Eritrea's two main ports, was heavily used by Ethiopia to import and export supplies.

The border is around 70 kilometers from the Red Sea and has been landlocked Ethiopia's closest point to the sea since Eritrea achieved independence in 1993.

Assab has an oil refinery and fuel storage depot but diplomats said the refinery was closed several months ago.

Taddesse said that fighting continued yesterday around Badme and Sheraro on the western border between the two Horn of Africa neighbors.

On Wednesday Ethiopia said it had inflicted heavy losses on attacking Eritrean forces in the area, which lies at the heart of the conflict. Eritrea also reported fighting.

"A large segment of Eritrean troops which launched an attack on Ethiopia's position at Badame front has been destroyed," Tadesse said.

Known as Badme or Badame, the area is a rocky 400-square- kilometer triangle of land claimed by both sides along the western border. Some areas on the Assab front are also in dispute.

Neither side has announced exact casualty figures from the five-week-old fighting.

The first clash was on May 6 but the risk of full-blown conflict soared with two days of air strikes on June 5 and 6 and land battles this week.

There was heavy fighting on Tuesday around Zalambessa on the main road between the two country's capitals. Addis Ababa is 550 kilometers to the south and the Eritrean capital Asmara is 100 kilometers to the north.

Diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict have so fair failed. Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki asked Egypt on Wednesday to help mediate in the conflict in a letter handed by emissaries to President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

Ethiopia said, however, it was unaware of Eritrea's request for Egyptian mediation.

"We welcome any friends who are trying to solve this. But Ethiopia's position is that a proliferation of mediators is not going to work," she said, adding that Ethiopia believed a U.S.- Rwanda peace plan remained the basis for mediation.

Among its recommendations, that plan called for the withdrawal of Eritrean forces to their pre-May 6 positions, implying they were first to take the offensive.

The Organization of African Unity (OAU), ending an annual summit meeting in Burkina Faso on Wednesday, agreed in principle to send a special peace mission to both nations. The summit also endorsed the U.S.-Rwanda recommendations which Ethiopia, before the war escalated last week, said it accepted in principle.

Diplomats said it remained to be seen whether Ethiopia would welcome strong Egyptian involvement in any mediation. The two countries have differences over Somalia policy and the use of waters from the River Nile.