Ethiopia: Rebels spread jitters in oil region

By Barry Malone

JIJIGA, Ethiopia, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A rebel group's claims to have captured seven towns and killed 1,000 soldiers in fierce fighting in Ethiopia's oil-producing Ogaden region are almost certainly exaggerated, foreign aid workers in the region say.

Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) staged bold raids on government positions last month and aid workers say several hundred people were probably killed on both sides.

But while the guerrillas are capable of causing instability in the vast Somali region, which includes the Ogaden and accounts for one-fifth of the country's landmass, experts say they cannot hold territory.

"They attacked more than twenty places," one aid worker, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in Jijiga, the regional capital. "But they only managed to take one town, not seven." Continued...