Asmara says four Ethiopian warplanes shot down

The Eritrean Foreign Ministry claimed in a statement on Wednesday that its forces fighting on the central front near Zala Anbesa had shot down four Ethiopian MiG-23 fighters. The Ethiopians denied losing any planes, with government spokeswoman Selome Tadesse describing the Eritrean claim as an outright lie. “I know that for a fact,” she said. Both countries described “extremely heavy” fighting on the Zala Anbesa front, with artillery, missiles, tanks, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and tens of thousands of troops taking part.

In Asmara, presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel said on Wednesday that the fighting was going very well for the Eritrean side, which had repulsed an attempt by the Ethiopians to outflank the Eritrean army at Adi Quati on the Mereb river, just west of the central sector. Ethiopia claimed its troops were making major advances on the Zala Anbesa front, Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin telling journalists in Addis Ababa that Ethiopia was now close to achieving its aim of regaining land occupied by Eritrea at the start of hostilities in May 1998.