Word: eritrea
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Until a few months ago, guerrilla activity in the northern Ethiopian province of Eritrea amounted to little more than an occasional attempt to hijack an airliner. The Ethiopian government scornfully referred to the predominantly Moslem members of the Eritrean Liberation Front as shifta (bandits), and Emperor Haile Selassie dismissed their activity as "insignificant...
Suddenly the guerrilla war has come to life. Last November the rebels devastated two villages in western Eritrea. At Debre Sila they killed 52 villagers and burned 200 houses. At Ademdem they ordered residents into their homes, set fire to the village and shot everyone who tried to escape. Both villages, significantly, were Christian. At about the same time, commandos ambushed and killed an Ethiopian general on a narrow canyon road. Last month they blew up two gasoline trucks only five miles from Asmara, the provincial capital, and ambushed and killed an American soldier from Kagnew Station, the giant...