Sam Kiley
Times of London,
June 12,1998
ETHIOPIA yesterday claimed that Eritrean aircraft had bombed civilian targets, including a hospital in Adigrat, as both sides fought with tanks and heavy artillery on a third front close to Asab, the Eritrean port that is of strategic importance to Ethiopia.
Details of the alleged bombing were sketchy, but diplomats said they had confirmation of the attack from an aid worker there who said the local hospital had been hit "either with bombs from a helicopter or from planes".
There were no casualty figures. But the raid, if confirmed, will be a blow to Eritrea's credibility, coming less than a week after more than 40 people, including ten children, were killed and scores wounded in a bombing raid on the Ethiopian town of Mekele. It could also provoke a retaliation from Ethiopia on the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
According to Eritrean officials, who are locked in a war of words with their opposite numbers in Addis Ababa, the fighting in Asab started in a ten-mile crescent of land recently claimed by Ethiopia on the road to Asab. The battle, the third major outbreak of hostilities in five days, could signal Ethiopia's intention to take over Asab, the port through which most of its trade flowed until it switched to Djibouti earlier this year.
Such a move on the vulnerable shipping town, sandwiched between the sea and a 30-mile strip of Eritrea's southern panhandle, would be popular in Ethiopia and a boost to the flagging military fortunes of the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, whose troops have yet to win a major battle since the conflict broke out in May.
Few details of the fighting were available in Asmara, about 300 miles or up to 14 days' drive from Asab. Telephone links with the town were cut. The overland route to the south is effectively a "no man's land" populated only by units of the Eritrean Army and fierce Afar tribesmen.
The Afars, an anarchic and violent race of nomads who prove their manhood by wearing the severed penis of a victim round their necks, maraud across the Danakil Depression, 130ft below sea level, kidnapping and robbing at will. Last year they seized a group of Italian tourists and tormented them by eating their rations in front of them while forcing them to climb coconut trees to harvest the only food they got for two weeks before being freed for an undisclosed ransom.
The tough climate and Afars have put Asab out on a limb from Asmara, but Eritrean officials said yesterday it would be "defended to the very last man".
President Afewerki yesterday scoffed at the Ethiopian Air Force, which was expected to try to bomb Asab, and said it had only "six operations pilots". He added: "I can show you the list of their names. They have overestimated their power and leaders believe their own propaganda. There is no chance of them even getting close to Asab."
Ethiopia claimed Eritrea started the battle by shelling the town of Budie, 20 miles from the border between the two countries. Eritrea said the Ethiopians started it.
Fighting continued in Badme yesterday, amid heavy rains on the western front. Eritrean sources said the rain had bogged down both sides "quite badly".