Word: ethiopian
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Outside Harar, a major town in the Ogaden, Somali tanks and artillery fought for two months against Ethiopian defenders dug into the hillsides. Along the winding dirt road from Harar to the front, small huts of clay bricks and thatched grass roofs were burned by occupying Somali forces, then hit by rockets and bombs from Ethiopian warplanes. Now the rubble lies mixed with brass shell casings, shattered steel helmets and bodies left to rot when the war passed through...
...fled. A few hundred have turned up in Harar, a day's walk away, where they took shelter in warehouses, their bundles of belongings arranged in a circle around each family. The rest exist in the bush, watching the kites (scavenging hawks) circle their villages. Last week the Ethiopian air force dropped leaflets telling the villagers it was safe to return home. Most declined...
...latest round of heavy fighting, which began during the last week of January around Harar, the Ethiopians say they have lost 500 to 700 dead and 1,500 wounded and have killed some 2,000 Somali army regulars. The actual figures are almost certainly higher, but the Ethiopian claim to have taken only 17 prisoners is probably accurate: both sides expect their soldiers to die fighting, and each side claims the other has special squads to eliminate troops that surrender...
Western diplomats in the area believe that while the Ethiopians have settled in for a long campaign to push the Somalis out of the Ogaden, the war could end fairly quickly if the Somalis decide to pull their army back, intact, behind their border. Indeed there was some indication that they were withdrawing their heavy artillery. But according to Somalian officials, this merely signals a shift back to guerrilla tactics against the Ethiopian forces. If the Somalians do execute a full retreat, there is now no serious concern that the Ethiopians will try to occupy any Somali territory, although...
...assessing the situation, a U.S. diplomat points out that "not all the results are in yet on the Soviet gamble on the Horn." For one thing, the Ethiopian regime's loyalty to Moscow has yet to be deeply tested. Mengistu is a nationalist above all, and there may be some truth in his claim that he turned to Moscow partly because the U.S. would not sell him weapons. In any case, the Soviets can hardly escape the many reminders of how quickly allegiances can change on the Horn. The Ethiopian soldiers still wear American-supplied uniforms; their weapons, ammunition...