Ethiopian forces fighting to keep Somali insurgents from completing conquest of the country's eastern Ogaden region have
gone on the offensive for the first time in more than two months, rebel leaders reported Tuesday.

Jama Hassan, northern field commander o fthe Western Somali Liberation Front - WSLF - said the Ethiopians, backed by
newly arrived Soviet arms and air cover and aided by troops from both Cuba and communist South Yemen, are attacking
guerrilla positions in the rain-drenched mountains around the ancient walled city of Harar.

The front wants to take the Ogaden from Ethiopia and add it to Somalia.  It claims it has captured more than 90 percent of the
region, which is largely populated by Somali tribes.  The secessionists refer to Ethiopians as "colonisers" of the area.

The Ethiopians are also troubled by Eritrean secessionists in the northern part of the country.

Harar and the town of Diredawe in the north of the Ogaden are the two remaining Ethiopian strongholds in the enbattled
eastern region. The guerrillas are trying to encircle and capture both towns.

The Ethiopian attacks indicate that Ethipia has regrouped its forces, which reportedly broke and ran during the guerilla attack
on the major town of Jijiga. The guerrillas captured it, together with its tank base, on Aug 27.

Western reporters allowed to visit Jijiga this week were not permitted to continue on to the war fronts around Harar. The
regular thump of artillery in the direction of Harar echoed back to this rebel-occupied mountaintop strenghold some 40 miles
away.

Jama told reporters there:

"Our forces are fighting in the wooded mountains and ridges that surround Harar and which give us good cover from this type
of attack.

"The Ethiopians are coming out of Harar regularly and attacking our positions. They use tanks and artillery as well as air strikes
to back their attacks. But we are operating in far easier terrain than around Jijiga which is mostly open ground."

He revealed that his forces have still to capture the Babile Gaphyome, 21 miles from Harar, which is considered the last
defensible position before the city. Fierce fighting for its control is continuing, he said.

Jama claimed troops from Cuba and South Yemen are bucking the Ethiopians in both Harar and Ethiopians in both Harar and
Diredawe, manning the new Soviet-supplied equipment, including tanks and artillery. Also being used, he said, are "Stalin
organs," multibarrelled rocket launchers mounted on the back of trucks and employed effectively by the Cubans in the Angolan
civil war.

WSLF officials claim both Cuba and South Yemen have some 2,000 troops participating in the war. Independent confirmation
was not available.

"Our people have been into both towns and have seen them with their own eyes," said Jama. "That is how we know that they
are there."

With the arrival of Soviet equipment and the alleged backing by foreign communist troops, military analysts say the Ogaden war has reached a crucial stage, with time on the side of the Ethiopian.

The Soviet Union, once also Somalia's major ally, has cut weapon supplies to that specialist state, which admits it is giving full
"moral and material support", but not troops, to the guerrillas.

The insurgents also receive an assortment of weapons from Arab states.  However, none of their supplies can match the
sophisticated weapons the Ethiopians are getting from the Soviets.

The guerrilla leaders still remain confident. "I don't see any major problem confronting us," said Jama.

The Ogaden population, put at anything between 3 million and 10 million, is ethnically Somali and gives its total support to the
liberation war, the guerrilla leaders said.  This is the paramount factor which no amount of sophisticated weaponry can ultimately overcome, they added.

Meanwhile both sides are being affected by torrential rains in battlefront regions over the past two weeks. One of the insurgents supply routes, stretching 1,109 miles from the northern Somali town of Hargeysa to Jijiga, has been turned into a river of mud.

The Associated Press (AP)

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