ERITREA: AT LEAST 300 ETHIOPIEAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN FIGHTING WITH ERITREAN TROOPS

Record ID: 674098

  • Title: ERITREA: AT LEAST 300 ETHIOPIEAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN FIGHTING WITH ERITREAN TROOPS
  • Date: 18th March 1999
  • Summary: SLV BODY IN FOREGROUND
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELESSA, ERITREA
  • Country: Eritrea
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAD2M345JOB868XXGH3BL4OLY6Y
  • Story Text: At least 300 Ethiopian soldiers have been killed in two days of fierce fighting with Eritrean troops.But Eritrean authorities claim the death toll is more like 10,000.
    The worst of the fighting took place near the Tsorona front about 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of the Eritrean capital Asmara.
    Journalists who travelled to the area described how the contorted bodies of Ethiopian soldiers were stacked on top of each other around Eritrean frontline trenches.
    Two hundred were counted in one small area alone.
    This latest battle began on Sunday (March 14) in a border war that has raged since last May.
    According to soldiers at the scene the Ethiopian forces attacked with tanks, MiG bombers and helicopters in a concerted campaign.
    But Eritrean troops - who haven't divulged details of their own losses - held firm.
    Colonel Afewerki Yermane, a frontline brigadier commander, claimed many Ethiopian soldiers were killed and many tanks destroyed.
    By Tuesday (March 16) fighting subsided but for intermittent artillery exchanges and the occasional crackle of heavy machine gunfire.
    The bodies of Ethiopian soldiers lay where they were killed.The Eritreans said they had no time to bury their enemy.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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