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Subscribe to RSSADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Ethiopia attacked rebel bases inside neighboring Eritrea on Thursday, accusing its arch-foe of training fighters who have staged raids, including a January attack that killed five Western tourists.
It was the first attack by Ethiopian troops inside Eritrea since the end of a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people and still festers, because the frontier dispute that ignited the conflict remains unresolved.
Ethiopia routinely accuses Asmara of supporting Ethiopian separatist groups. It blamed an Afar rebel movement for the kidnapping of Westerners in its northern Afar region in 2007, and again for the attack in the same area in January.
"Our national defense force has today taken measures against military posts inside Eritrea in which subversive and anti-peace elements were trained," government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told reporters.
Five Europeans killed in attack in remote Ethiopia
Gunmen killed two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian in a dawn attack on a group of tourists in the remote Afar region on January 17, and seized two Germans and two Ethiopians.
A rebel group in the Afar region said last week it had freed the two Germans, although there has been no official confirmation of the release.
"These groups are operating in the Afar area. We know for certain that the Eritrean government harbors, supports, trains and deploys subversive groups that occasionally launch attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets inside Ethiopia," he said.
Shimeles said Ethiopian soldiers attacked three places -- Ramid, Gelahbe and Gimbi -- 10 miles inside southeastern Eritrea. "We will continue our measures as long as they remain a launching pad for similar attacks," he said.
Border dispute still unresolved
After the border war, The Hague-based Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission ruled in 2002 that the border village of Badme belonged to Eritrea.
However, the village remains in Ethiopia and Eritrea blames the international community, and the United Nations in particular, for not forcing Ethiopia to accept the border.
Tensions along the frontier rose sharply in November 2005 as both countries moved up troops. By January 2006, Ethiopia had complied with a U.N. demand to withdraw its soldiers.
The United Nations has also slapped sanctions on Eritrea, accusing it of supporting Islamist rebels in Somalia, a charge the Red Sea state strongly denies.
Despite the repeated denials that it is not a destabilizing force in the volatile Horn of Africa region, Eritrea is widely regarded in the international community as a pariah state and is deeply mistrusted by its neighbors.
Eritrea accuses Ethiopia -- Washington's main ally in the Horn of Africa -- and the United States of influencing a U.N. monitoring group with fabricated evidence about the reclusive Red Sea state's links to militants in Somalia.
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How come almost every time you read about war and unrest in the world, the word Islamist is used?
because they are a religion that promotes violence without even realizing it, pray for them though.
Actually, I think the DO realize it and just don't care. It's thier way of life.
Which group has killed the foreigners recently?
It is not about which nation is one of the U.S.A. allies but it is which group has killed the innocent foreigners.
About time, was wondering when they were going to have a chance to use their military again. Be good for hiring workers who are having trouble finding work there and provide them with training, along with striking back. All around win move.
My problem is with the title of the article, first read makes it seem that Ethiopia launched an invasion, but then you read the article and see that they attacked rebel camps along the border. That is a big difference.
...It pains me that Ethiopia is still involved in conflict after all these years. They have a civilization going back to Roman times... they managed to avoid European conquest (until Mussolini in the 1930s...)
...From 1951-53 they sent three separate battalions of the Imperial Guard to Korea where they lost not one prisoner to the enemy... but had the best night action record in the theater. My father was the first American liaison officer to the Kagnew ("Conqueror") battalion in 1951 and was awarded the Star of Ethiopia.
...But then came a coup... and a Marxist government... and war with Somalia... then a civil war (the bloody Marxist dictator now living in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe...) And still there is no peace. It saddens me...
more Islamic law battles between poor people led by the Arab world. Black nations over run by Arabs under the guise of religion. Islam is the new copy cat of the holy roman empire. Rome fell and the Vatican was born. Cesar under a different name. Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it.....we know history, we don't need to but in...
The main religion in Ethiopia is Coptic Christian going back to the earliest centuries of Christianity...
"We released the captive Germans" unfortunately it was into the wild areas and they didn't fair so well against the lions......
It is very disheartening to see the world we live in today in so much turmoil and war. Did you know that Isaiah 2:4 says “And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.” And Daniel 2:44 says “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” These promises give us hope that all suffering will end soon. God’s government will heal, cure and put an end to all chaos caused by man’s governments.