Two bombs landed three miles from Badme, where the latest round of fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea began Saturday. The two Horn of Africa nations are fighting over an unmarked portion of their 600-mile border.

The fighting first flared in May, killing 1,000 people before ending two weeks later in a tense standoff. U.S. officials had brokered a moratorium on airstrikes, but the deal appeared abandoned Tuesday.

An Associated Press photographer and television cameraman watched an Ethiopian Antonov aircraft drop two bombs just before dawn Tuesday on the village of Lailaideda, where Eritrean civilians deported from Ethiopia had taken refuge.

But reports on fighting elsewhere were difficult to confirm, with both sides making contradictory claims.

The Eritrean government reported Tuesday that its forces had killed more than 1,500 Ethiopian soldiers and wounded another 3,000 in fighting Monday near the border at Tsorena, 60 miles south of Asmara.

The government also claimed to have disabled at least three Ethiopian brigades in fighting at the Badme-Shiraro front, 95 miles southwest of Asmara.

But in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, government spokeswoman Selome Tadesse denied Eritrea's version of the fighting around Tsorena. She said Ethiopian forces had captured Konin and Konito -- which she said were two Eritrean strongholds overlooking Tsorena.

Selome also denied Eritrean reports that their forces still hold Geza Gerelasie -- known to Ethiopeans as Geza Gersale -- even after journalists visited the village Monday with Eritrean officials.

``The Eritrean government has taken its public relations schemes to new heights by accompanying correspondents to a battlefront, telling them that it was Geza Gersale,'' Selome told reporters.

She also said Ethiopia had used heavy artillery to knock out a radar station at Adi Quala, 10 miles inside Eritrea.

Eritrea called the claim ``pure fabrication.'' Residents in the small town 55 miles south of Asmara told reporters that a radar station there had not been damaged in shelling Monday but had been removed by Eritrean soldiers during the night.

We should note that the Reuters report described Laili Deda, as "a village of tents housing about 500 Eritreans deported from Ethiopia last year."

Now, why on earth are the Eritreans setting up civilian camps only three (3) miles from the Badime front line? [See above AP report: "Two bombs landed three miles from Badme, where the latest round of fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea began Saturday."]

Why in God's name weren't these people moved on Saturday when the latest fighting started? The Eritreans have been shuttling journalists and others back and forth from Asmara. Could they not have found the kindness in them to move these people away from the frontline? It is astounding!

These people have been staying there since being deported last year! Why were they kept in the border area so long? It seems to confirm reports that Eritrea has been bringing in settlers to occupy the land it invaded.

A tented camp close to a military front line is going to be regarded as a military target (eg logistic support center). Eritrea knows this. Have these innocent civilians been deliberately positioned adjacent to the front line as a human shield to protect the Eritrean troops from the Ethiopian Air Force? What the hell is going on there? Eritrea must evacuate all civilians from the front line areas immediately. This is inexcusable.

2. The laughable explanation provided by the "residents" of Adi Quala concerning the radar station simply confirms the obvious. The radar station was demolished thanks to the skillful, on-target Ethiopian artillery shells. In addition, this cover story also flatly contradicts the assertion by Eritrean spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel that there was no radar station in Adi Quala.

Below is the relevant quote:

"She [Ethiopian spokesperson] also said Ethiopia had used heavy artillery to knock out a radar station at Adi Quala, 10 miles inside Eritrea."

"Eritrea called the claim ``pure fabrication.'' Residents in the small town 55 miles south of Asmara told reporters that a radar station there had not been damaged in shelling Monday but had been removed by Eritrean soldiers during the night."

INTRO: IT HAS BEEN ANOTHER DAY OF HEAVY FIGHTING IN THE HORN OF AFRICA BETWEEN ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA. V-O-A EAST AFRICA CORRESPONDENT SCOTT STEARNS IN ADDIS ABABA REPORTS ETHIOPIA IS DENYING REPORTS THAT IT IS BOMBING CIVILIAN TARGETS IN ERITREA.

TEXT: ETHIOPIA SAYS ITS FIGHTER JETS WERE NOT IN ACTION EARLY TUESDAY WHEN ERITREA SAYS THEY BOMBED CIVILIAN POSITIONS NORTH OF THE BORDER.

ETHIOPIA SAYS IT IS ENGAGED IN A TANK BATTLE, SOUTHWEST OF A KEY MILITARY POST OUTSIDE THE ERITREAN-HELD TOWN OF BADAME.

ETHIOPIA SAYS IT NOW HOLDS THAT POST AT GEZA GERLASE. ERITREA SAYS THE STRATEGIC RIDGE ABOVE BADAME STILL IS UNDER ITS COMMAND.

ONE-HUNDRED KILOMETERS TO THE EAST, ETHIOPIA SAYS IT HAS REGAINED THE VILLAGES OF KONIN AND KONITO, PREPARING TO MOVE AGAINST ERITREAN POSITIONS FARTHER NORTH.

BOTH COUNTRIES CLAIM AREAS ALONG THEIR ROCKY BORDER. THE FIGHTING BREAKS AN EIGHT-MONTH CEASEFIRE DURING WHICH MEDIATORS FAILED TO RESOLVE THIS DISPUTE. (SIGNED)

NEB/SKS/JWH/JO

Weekend fighting ended an eight-month stalemate in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea over their unmarked border, a conflict that has simmered since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia six years ago.

Late Monday, Eritrea claimed its troops in the contested Badme-Shiraro area had survived withering artillery barrages and helicopter attacks and had pushed back a three-day Ethiopian offensive.

Hand grenades and rifles littered the parched landscape after the battle, and the air reeked of gunpowder and scorched metal.

Amid the devastation and death, morale was high among Eritrean troops, who said they were determined to stop the Ethiopians from retaking the contested Yirga triangle, 95 miles southwest of the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and the largest of a half-dozen disputed areas.

However, the Ethiopian government said Monday that the Eritreans sustained heavy losses in Badme-Shiraro and further to the east.

Government spokeswoman Selome Tadesse said Ethiopian troops captured major Eritrean strongholds at Konin and Konito, areas so remote that they do not appear on most maps of Eritrea or Ethiopia.

Selome said the Ethiopian air force had played "an instrumental role" in fighting off the Eritreans -- a counteroffensive that would violate a moratorium on airstrikes brokered last June by President Clinton.

At the Geza Gerelasie battlefield, a red-eyed Eritrean soldier, covered with white dust from a shell that landed too close, vomited in a trench next to a dead comrade. Limping and bandaged soldiers were helped back to the trenches in scenes reminiscent of World War I.

The bodies of two Ethiopian soldiers found in an Eritrean trench could have easily been mistaken for those of Eritreans, except Ethiopian soldiers wear boots, and their enemies wear sandals.

"They were very brave and deserved to be respected," Eritrean Lt. Col. Ogbai Besaamalakh said of the two Ethiopians killed in battle.

A dozen Ethiopian prisoners sat on the battlefield after they had surrendered, saying the war was not theirs.

"This is a Tigrayan war," said one, referring to the people of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, whose guerrilla army helped oust dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 and now control the country.

It was the Tigrayan militia that clashed with Eritrean troops in Badme last May 6, igniting what had been a simmering border dispute since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 as part of a deal between the two guerrilla armies that had joined to defeat Mengistu.

Eritrea said it beat back a major Ethiopian offensive along the border Monday, killing at least 1,500 soldiers and wounding around 3,000 on a key military front near its southern town of Tsorona.

``They are sustaining heavy damage and they are not gaining any ground,'' a senior government official told Reuters.

But Ethiopia said it captured two Eritrean strongholds on the Tsorona front during Monday's intense clashes and then held off Eritrean counter-attacks.

``Eritrean attempts to recapture these key military positions only resulted in further loss and defeat for their side,'' the government said in a statement in Addis Ababa. There was no independent confirmation of either claim.

Both sides renewed heavy artillery exchanges at first light Tuesday and Ethiopia deployed fighter planes and helicopters to back up its ground forces. Its attacks also killed civilians.

A Reuters correspondent said an Ethiopian bomber killed five civilians and wounded five others in one pre-dawn air raid on an Eritrean village near the disputed border.

Two women, two men and an infant were killed when the plane dropped at least four bombs on Laili Deda, a village of tents housing about 500 Eritreans deported from Ethiopia last year.

The victims were all members of the same family. As relatives quickly buried the dead, an Ethiopian MiG fighter jet launched another bombing attack about two km (1.5 miles) away.

Residents said Ethiopian planes had been bombing the area since last Saturday, when fighting erupted in the border dispute between the two Horn of Africa nations.

The Eritrean army has positions near Laili Deda on the Badme front but the civilian victims of Tuesday's attack were killed in an almost direct hit on their tent.

``We heard the plane and then we just waited. We knew this was going to be close but then it hit right next to us,'' said Asmerum Berhum, a relative of those killed.

During the burial, the husband of one woman killed broke down in tears, wailing: ``My family, my family, my family.''

The five people killed were deported from Ethiopia in June, one month after the first round of the border war began.

Fighting petered out in June and both sides agreed to an air moratorium but the war flared up again Saturday.

Reuters correspondents who visited the battlefield on two fronts Monday said Eritrean troops appeared to be holding their ground against the Ethiopian ground and air offensive.

At the border post of Gazagerehlase, which Ethiopia says it seized over the weekend, the bodies of several Ethiopian soldiers were lying close to Eritrean trenches, apparently cut down while on a ground attack.

Over 100 Ethiopians had been taken prisoner, while Eritrean troops were well dug in and in good humor.

But Ethiopian officials disputed the report, saying the journalists had no way of verifying where they were. ``It's a public relations sham,'' government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse told Reuters in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia has so far not allowed journalists to visit battle zones along the 1,000 km (600 mile) border.

Some stall holders sit reading newspapers to catch up on the latest developments on the front in the border conflict with their northern neighbour Eritrea, which exploded again on Saturday after an eight-month lull.

But fed on a triumphal diet of battlefield victories from the state-run media, most go about their business confident that Eritrean forces which first occupied contested border territories last May would soon be beaten back.

``I am very happy the war has started because the Ethiopian army is very strong,'' said Shewaneh Tessema, a 25-year-old tailor. ``Our government waited too long... it is not in our history to accept an invasion.''

Both Horn of Africa nations accuse the other of reigniting the conflict, and both have claimed the upper hand in fighting in the days since.

Eritrean counter-claims are derided or ignored by the Ethiopian press and it was hard to find anyone who did not take the Ethiopian government at its word.

``I believe that we are told the truth. I blame the Eritreans for all of this,'' said Marta, a postgraduate student drinking a soda with friends in an open air cafe near the main university.

At the heart of the conflict is a seemingly worthless 400 square km (150 square mile) triangle of scrub land in the northern border region of Badme, far from the capital.

Eritrean forces occupied Badme in May last year during a bloody six-week ground and air war which spread to two other fronts and left hundreds of troops and dozens of civilians dead.

Although fighting died down in mid-June, it gave way to a vitriolic war of words between the two sides. Faced with fierce national pride in both countries, intense diplomatic efforts have failed to resolve the dispute.

Residents of Addis Ababa said even after months to consider the potentially devastating effects of war, they still believed the border territory was worth fighting for.

``The land itself might be worthless but that is not the point,'' said Solomon, a 27-year-old economics student. ``Its value is about something else, it is a matter of sovereignty.''

``I am 100 percent sure we will win,'' said Marta, angrily dismissing Eritrean reports of hundreds of Ethiopian casualties in recent days. ``There is no question.''