Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of border attack
NAIROBI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Eritrea has accused Ethiopia of launching an attack on its security forces on Tuesday this week, describing it as part of ongoing provocation along their disputed border.
In a statement posted on its Web site shabait.com late on Wednesday, Asmara said the relatively small-scale raid targeted its troops and allied militias in the South Tsorona region, inside a former buffer zone, and ended in failure.
"(The) attack comes in continuation to (Ethiopia's) ongoing provocation and aggression in the Gash-Barka and Southern regions, whereby it planted mines, carried out incursions, abducted nationals and burned crop fields to the ground," the Eritrean statement said.
Ethiopian officials were not immediately available to comment on the allegation, but they routinely reject Eritrea's version of border incidents.
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Ethiopia to avoid raising tensions with Eritrea.
About 70,000 people were killed in a 1998-2000 border war between the two neighbours. In November, an international commission charged with setting the 1,000-km (620-mile) frontier dissolved itself, leaving the two states to work it out alone. (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
