DATELINE: NAIROBI, Kenya

BODY:
   Secessionist Somali insurgents reportedly have stepped up the guerrilla war in Ethiopia's disputed Ogaden region and claim
they destroyed 29 tanks in recent clashes with Ethiopian forces.

Diplomats in Ethiopia and Somalia contacted today could not confirm reports that regular troops from Somalia are infiltrating
the region disguised as guerrillas, but they said it is unlikely the war could continue without direct aid from Somalia.

Regular Somali troops were routed from the semi-desert region in March by Ethiopian troops backed by Cuban forces and
Soviet military equipment, but the guerrilla fighting has continued.

Communiques issued in the Somali capital of Mogadishu by the Western Somali Liberation Front reported two major
engagements they said occurred at the end of May.

One reported attack was on an Ethiopian base near the northern Ogaden city of Harar, where the rebels say they destroyed 26
tanks and 27 military trucks. They also killed 250 "enemy," the communique said, including 40 "Russo-Cuban" soldiers.

In the other battle, the WSLF said it destroyed three tanks and five military trucks in an ambush near Kebri Dehar in the
southern Ogaden.

WSLF communiques are broadcast by Mogadishu radio, which is monitored here. Independent confirmation of the WSLF's battlefield claims is unavailable.

Since threatening last month to invade Somalia if the guerrilla war is not stopped, Ethiopia has remained silent on the situation in
the Ogaden, which is populated by ethnic Somali tribesman and which Somalia claims as part of its territory.

It is widely accepted by Western diplomats that the regular reports issued by the insurgents of casualties and destroyed or
damaged Ethiopian equipment are exaggerated.

"There is no doubt that the Somalis are continuing hit-and-run warfare in the Ogaden," said one Western diplomat.

"But as far as we know it is low-key stuff which they can probably keep up for years.

However, we consider it perfootly possible that the Ethiopians will make good their threat to hit back at Somali."

Following the defeat of his troops in March, Somali President Mohammed Siad Barre announced all regular forces were being withdrawn.

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