Eritrea: 1500 Ethiopian soldiers killed

Fighting continues between Ethiopia and Eritrea in the disputed border areas.

Today in a statement to ArabicNews.com, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said "At the end of the fighting yesterday, the 'elite' 20th and 24th divisions of the Ethiopian army were severely battered with more than 1,500 soldiers killed and around 3,000 wounded. Twenty soldiers were also captured."

While the fighting in the Mereb-Setit area have subsided, the statement said that "fighting continued until the late afternoon hours on the Tsorona flank of the Alitena-Mereb front." Eritrea said Ethiopia used "Ethiopian Antonov and MiG fighter planes bombed Deda La-ilai, a village in western Eritrea, today at dawn."

Meantime, eight Eritrean civilians were killed on Monday as a result of Ethiopia's bombardment of their city, Adi Kuwala, which is close to the fighting front. Eritrea's News agency said on Monday that other nine civilians were wounded as a result of bombardment of the said city. Moreover, units of the Ethiopian army backed by helicopters attacked Eritrea's positions on Monday at the border area between the two countries. Eritrea's Presidential advisor Yarmani Geiber told journalists on Monday that units of the Ethiopian army attacked the Eritrea's troops at Aletina, Zalambia and Tsourona positions.

On Monday, the Ethiopian government stressed that an Eritrean radar station near Adi Kuwala village was destroyed. AFP quoted a spokesman for the Ethiopian government as saying in a statement that the destroyed Eritrean radar station is located in an area which is not populated, five KM Southern East Adi Kuwala, to the west of the central fighting front. The statement added that fighting still continues on the Western front for the third successive day there.