MOGADISHU, Somalia
 

   An official Somalia radio broadcast quoted a man identified as a Cuban soldier Thursday as saying he was captured by Somali rebels fighting in the war for eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden Desert.

The broadcast identified the soldier as Orlando Carlos, Cuban army serial No. 100160 from Havana. The report said Carlos
confirmed he was taken prisoner on the western edge of the strategic city of Harar, headquarters of Ethiopia's third army
division.

The soldier was quoted as saying 30 Cubans were killed in the battle when Ethiopian forces, aided by Cuban and Soviet
troops, launched an offensive against the rebel Somali positions.

The insurgent Western Somali Liberation Front claimed in a broadcast Wednesday it captured several Cuban soldiers and
"killed other allied forces." Somali has said for months the Soviet Union and Cuba were aiding Ethiopia against the ethnic
Somalia rebels, including as many as 6,000 to 7,000 Cuban soldiers fighting in the Ogaden.

The United State Department recently said about 1,000 Soviet and 2,000 Cuban personnel may have been sent to Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has denied that Cuban or Soviet advisers have assumed a combat role. The Soviet Union also has denied sending
troops in to help the Ethiopian forces, which are reported losing ground.

The broadcast said Carlos was interviewed by Somali radio reporters at the rebel-held town of Jijiga, about 50 miles east of
the Ogaden battlefront. He was quoted as saying Cuban and other troops do not relish fighting for Ethiopia's Marxist military
government and that the outside Communist help cannot save Ethiopia from defeat..

Carlos, the broadcast said, also told reporters the ethnic Somalis battling to secede the Ogaden Desert from Ethiopia and join it to a greater Somalia have nothing in common with the Ethiopian people.

The Associated Press (AP)
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