ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY

ASMARA, ERITREA (EmergencyNet News) - Ethiopian warplanes bombed Eritrea's capital for a second straight day on Saturday with the target again appearing to be the civilian and military airports. The raid began at 0945 hours local time and was immediately answered by a hail of anti-aircraft fire. It was not clear what targets had been struck or if there were any casualties. Ethiopia and Eritrea traded air strikes on Friday that killed 45 people and wounded 140 as their month-long border conflict worsened.

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From the ERRI Watch Center

ASMARA, ERITREA (EmergencyNet News) - Ethiopian and Eritrean warplanes are now bombing one another. On Saturday morning, Ethiopian warplanes bombed Eritrea's capital Asmara for a second straight day with the target again appearing to be the military and civilian airports. The raid began at 0945 hours local time and was answered by a hail of anti-aircraft fire.

It was not immediately clear what targets had been struck or if there were any casualties. Eritrean anti-aircraft guns downed an Ethiopian fighter bomber during the raid and the pilot was captured and paraded through the streets. The plane was the third shot down by Eritrea since Friday.

The two countries launched bombing raids against each other on Friday as a simmering border dispute flared into a new dimension of violence. Eritrea reportedly inflicted more casualties in an air strike on a northern Ethiopian town but Ethiopia struck at the heart of the Eritrean capital. Other African nations pleaded with two of the continent's poorest countries to halt their escalating conflict, while the United States protested that attacks on the airport in Asmara endangered foreign nationals trying to flee the fighting.

It was reported that 190 foreigners were evacuated from Asmara late on Friday by a U.S.-chartered A300 Airbus, but dozens more were left stranded when Eritrea later refused Britain permission to send a second charter plane. Foreign nationals who gathered with their belongings at Asmara's airport -- bombed earlier in the day by Ethiopian warplanes -- were turned away by officials who said there would be no more evacuation flights.

On Friday, Eritrean warplanes bombed the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele at least twice, killing 44 people and wounding 135 others. An airport under construction in the nearby city of Axum was also bombed, but there was no independent confirmation.

Ethiopian jets in turn struck twice at Asmara, hitting both the military and nearby civilian airports. It was not clear who launched the first attack, with both sides accusing the other of indiscriminately bombing civilian targets.

An Ethiopian MiG 23 was downed by Eritrean gunfire during the Asmara raid. One person was killed and five others wounded by shrapnel as they waited in at a bus stop outside the airport. A Zambian cargo aircraft parked on the runway was also hit.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry on Saturday advised its nationals that they should defer non-essential travel to Ethiopia and Eritrea because of the two countries' hostile border dispute. The ministry issued the warning because a medium security risk has arisen after the two countries exchanged tit-for-tat bombing raids on Friday. The recommendation to postpone travel is a level two warning on Japan's five point scale. A level five warning calls for a complete and immediate evacuation of Japanese nationals.

ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY

ASMARA, ERITREA (EmergencyNet News) - The Eritrean capital braced for more air strikes on Sunday after an Ethiopian deadline passed for hundreds of foreigners to fly to safety. With no end in sight to the bewildering and undeclared war between the Horn of Africa neighbors, Asmara residents faced the real threat of more bombing raids from 0700 hours local time, when Ethiopia's 13-hour suspension of raids ended. The let-up allowed foreign nationals to board evacuation flights sent by the United States, Germany, Russia, Italy, Britain and the United Nations. Ethiopian MiG fighters have hit Asmara airport three times since the border war erupted on Friday.

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From the ERRI Watch Center

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (EmergencyNet News) - Ethiopia said on Sunday it had retaken the border town of Zalambessa and ejected the Eritrean force which captured the town last week. A foreign Ministry official said that Ethiopian troops defeated a brigade-strength Eritrean force which had occupied the town and chased them back across the border.

Zalambessa lies outside disputed territory claimed by both sides in their hostile border war but was occupied by Eritrea on Tuesday. The official said fighting between the combatants was still being reported.

The border conflict has been overshadowed since Friday by an aerial bombing between the Ethiopian and Eritrean airforces in which nearly 50 people have been killed and over 100 others wounded.

The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday and insisted Eritrea had shot down only one Ethiopian plane against the three claimed by the government in Asmara. However, reporters in Eritrea have seen two downed aircraft and wreckage from a third brought to the capital as trophies.

The Ethiopian statement condemned Eritrean air raids on the northern town of Mekele on Friday, saying the attacks were: "clearly aimed at unleashing terror among the civilian population."

In Asmara, Ethiopian warplanes bombed the commercial airport in the capital and one civilian had been killed by shrapnel and five others were wounded.

On Saturday, Ethiopia said it would cease bombing Asmara for 13 hours until 0700 hours local time on Sunday to allow the evacuation of foreign nationals from the city. No fresh raids had been reported several hours after the deadline.

A source familiar with the Eritrean Air Force said Ethiopia clearly was trying to wipe out Eritrea's small air force, which consists of a half- dozen aging Soviet-era MiG fighter-bombers. Ethiopia's army also outnumbers Eritrea's 40,000-strong force by about three to one.

The German Defense Ministry said that German military aircraft carrying 210 Europeans took off for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And the British Defense Ministry reported that a British air force plane picked up the remaining 40 Britons and about 60 Australian, Canadian and South African nationals and took off for Jeddah. Two U.S. and two Italian planes also carried foreigners from Asmara to neighboring Djibouti, but it wasn't know how many people were aboard those flights.

ERRI MORNING NEWS SUMMARY