Word: somali
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
MADAWEIN, Ethiopia--Ethiopian air and artillery forces heavily bombarded Somali positions along the Ogaden battle front, driving the Somali troops from strategic positions on the road to the Ethiopian outpost at Harar...
After some hesitation, Moscow has jumped forcefully into the internal wars between its Ethiopian client, the Marxist regime headed by Lieut. Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, and the rebel forces that have captured chunks of Ethiopian territory in Eritrea on the Red Sea and the Ogaden region bordering the Somali Democratic Republic. In mid-December, big Antonov and Ilyushin transport planes began wheeling into the airport at Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The airlift, which appears to be concluding, has brought iri $850 million worth of arms, including T-34 tanks, field guns, heavy mortars and light missiles. U.S. officials believe...
Five hundred miles to the southeast, Colonel Mengistu's forces have begun a counteroffensive in the Ogaden region. Last fall ethnic Somali tribesmen, aided by Somalia, overran most of the Ogaden, in what Somalia claims is a liberation war to clear out the Ethiopian "colonizers." Now the fierce but poorly equipped Western Somali Liberation Front is badly overextended, and Somalia claimed last week that Ethiopian forces had launched a major attack out of Harar, one of only two towns in the area that the Ethiopians hold...
...some reason thought it could curry favor with its new friends in Addis Ababa without antagonizing Somalia's President, Mohamed Siad Barre, who had been the Kremlin's closest ally in northeast Africa. But angered by Moscow's growing involvement with Ethiopia, a traditional Somali enemy, Barre kicked the Russians out of his country last November and closed down the big Soviet military base on the Red Sea at Berbera...
...moment, the Ogaden war remains a stalemate, with Somali forces holding most of the disputed territory and maintaining pressure on the strategic Ethiopian-held towns of Harar and Dire Dawa. Most diplomatic sources in Mogadishu believe, however, that when new shipments of heavy Soviet military equipment already in Ethiopia begin to show up in the field, the tide of battle could well turn against the Somalis...