Word: jijiga
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...remain among the several problem areas Washington has on that continent. And, as the President well knew, Barre's battalions were not conducting an orderly withdrawal; they were being badly beaten. Several thousand Somali soldiers are estimated to have died last week around the strategic Ogaden town of Jijiga...
Militarily, the speedy windup of the fighting was a Soviet tactical triumph. For centuries, Jijiga has been protected against attacks from the west by the Ahmar Mountains and the Karamarda Pass. Instead of trying to fight through the pass, a combined combat force, estimated at 68,000 Ethiopians and 7,000 Cubans, simply went over the mountains. Light armor -tanks or armored personnel carriers -was airlifted behind the lines of the surprised Somalis by Soviet heavy Mi-6 or Mi-8 helicopters based at Dire Dawa. The Somalis had been pinned down by repeated...
...week's end the Ethiopians were reported to have swept 20 miles to Babile and taken positions to the south and east of Jijiga, from which they had been driven last August. The Somalis admitted that their forces in the Ogaden were in a "tactical retreat," and on Thursday the Mogadishu government called for general mobilization "in the face of a threatened Ethiopian invasion...
...first pivotal point," reported TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief David Wood from Addis Ababa, "will come if the Ethiopian thrust breaks through the barren Karamarda Mountains, which lie across the line of advance some six miles west of Jijiga. For thousands of years, armies on both sides have stood off invasions here. And it is here that the Ethiopians fled in the face of the Somali advance...
...From Jijiga, the Ethiopians could easily sweep another 95 miles to the Somali border. The big question is: What will they do when they reach that frontier? One member of the Ethiopian junta told Wood: "I can assure you that Ethiopia is not going to invade Somalia." Nonetheless, the Somalis are fearful that the Ethiopians if they reconquer the Ogaden will not be able to resist the impulse to slice through northern Somalia...