DATE=5/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA - ERITREA (L)
NUMBER=2-262586
BYLINE=SCOTT STERNS
DATELINE=BARENTU
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Ethiopia says it has bombed Eritrea's main
military training base and captured another town near
the central front of their border war. V-O-A's Scott
Sterns is with Ethiopia's army inside Eritrea and
files this report.
TEXT: Ethiopia says it has bombed the Eritrean
training camp at Sawa, 160 kilometers west of the
Eritrean Capital Asmara. Following Thursday's air
attack on military facilities around the main Red Sea
port of Massawa, Ethiopia's air force now appears to
have the advantage over Eritrea's air defense.
Ethiopia says its ground troops have also captured the
village of Maidea on the road to the town of Mendefera
50 kilometers south of Asmara. That brings them
closer to the central Tsorona front, where Eritrean
troops may now have to face a fight on three sides or
retreat to Mendefera.
Having captured more than 100 kilometers of ground in
western Eritrea in a week of fighting, Ethiopia's army
appears to be spreading out east and west -- parallel
to their contested border. West takes them toward
Sudan into areas Ethiopia believes most Eritreans
troops have already abandoned. Thirty-thousand
civilians in that area have already crossed into
Sudan's Kassala state. East along the border takes
Ethiopia's troops toward the Tsorona front and the
battle for reclaiming the town of Zalamdesa.
Fighting across this front is now being coordinated
from the town of Barentu, which Ethiopia took two days
ago to cut Eritrea's main re-supply route west.
Ethiopia says it is pursuing the Eritrean troops who
retreated from Barentu, now about 15 kilometers
outside town. They are moving toward the town of
Akordat, 45 kilometers north of Barentu.
Eritrean relief officials say civilians in Akordat
have already been evacuated ahead of the Ethiopian
advance. (Signed)
NEB/SS/ENE-T/JP
19-May-2000 16:48 PM EDT (19-May-2000 2048 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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