Ethiopian counter-attack drives rebels back from Red Sea port

Press, 6 January 1978, Page 5

Ethiopian counter-attack drives rebels back from Red Sea port

NZPA Ethiopia Besieged Ethiopian soldiers at the vital Red Sea port of Massawa have apparently broken out from defensive positions and driven rebel forces from the city, diplomatic sources in Ethiopia have said. The Ethiopian counterattack came last week after two weeks of fierce fighting in the city, in Ethiopia’s northern most province of Eritrea.

The Ethiopians are saying privately that they are now firmly in control of Massawa and that the Eritreans have been pushed back, diplomatic sources said. Reports that Massawa was reclaimed by Ethiopian troops, however, were tot confirmed by independent so-rces, who said they did not know how far the Eritreans had retreated. An estimated 10.000 guer-

rillas of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front rushed Massawa in midDecember, breached the defences and pinned down Ethiopian troops within the city’s port area. Heavy hand-to-hand combat reportedly took place and Ethiopian jet fighters and naval ships were said to have bombarded Eritrean positions within the city. Eritrean rebels have captured most of the rugged province in nearly 17 years of fighting. Massawa, Ethiopia’s other Red Sea port of Assab, and the provincial capital of Asmara are the only three big centres in Eritrea still in Government hands.

In Rome, the Eritrean Liberation Front said it had stopped Ethiopia’s airlift to its besieged garrison in Asmara by shelling the runway.

An E.L.F. spokesman, Habtegiorgis Abraha, clarified his statement earlier this week that “the airport is in the control of the E.L.F.”

Asked about denials by the Ethiopian Embassy in London, Mr Habtegiorgis said: “We mean by control that we have stopped all flights. We have not occupied it, but it is in E.L.F. control, “We fired from heavy weapons on to the runway and planes have not been permitted to land,” he added. “Ethiopian defence of the airport has been paralysed.” If the closing of the airport is confirmed, the Ethiopian garrison besieged in Asmara by the E.L.F. and the bigger Eritrean People’s Liberation Front will be totally cut off. Road and rail links 'were cut by the rebels several months ago.

Meanwhile, there was speculation in Addis Ababa that a high-ranking Soviet military delegation visted Ethiopia in December for discussions v..h Ethiopia’s Marxist leaders.

According to diplomatic sources, rumours in the Ethiopian capital said the Russians stayed one week in Ethiopia, but this has neither been officially nor unofficially confirmed by Ethiopian officials.

Somalia has claimed that Soviet defence officials and a Soviet army chief visited Ethiopia last ~ J nth to plan strategy to defeat secessionist movements in Eritrea and Ethiopia’s disputed Ogaden Region, and to plan an invasion of Somalia. The Soviet Union supplies Ethiopia with weapons. In December, two Soveit military delegations paid visits to Angola and Libya.