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Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of aggression as tensions between the two neighbors escalates
He said the timing of the attack appears to have been deliberately chosen to coincide with the tenth anniversary of a ruling by a boundary commission, which it says, ruled in its favor.
Ethiopia said Thursday’s attack was in retaliation to attacks by groups which have been sponsored by the Eritrean government and that European tourists were killed in one of the most recent attacks.
Militants attacked European tourists from five nations traveling in Ethiopia’s arid north in January. Five tourists were killed and two were kidnapped. The two kidnapped German tourists have since been released.
Ethiopia blamed gunmen from Eritrea for the attack.
Osman described the killings of the Europeans as deplorable but said Ethiopia is using it as an excuse to launch attacks.
The border war between the two countries killed about 80,000 people. Recent signs have pointed to growing tension in the region.
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the country’s parliament in April that his government would actively support Eritrean opposition groups to help topple that country’s regime. Ethiopia also blamed Eritrea for scheming bomb attacks on several targets in Addis Ababa during an African Union summit in January 2011.
Eritrea doesn’t receive foreign aid and is sanctioned by the U.N. because of human rights violations. U.N. reports have indicated that Eritrea has supported the al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab. Eritrea has denied those accusations.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press.
