Heavy Ethiopian air and artillery bombardments of ethnic Somali positions along the Ogden battlefront have drive the
Somalia-backed rebels from strategic outposts on the Harar-Dire Dawa road, an insurgent commander said here.

The commander, Jama Ali, said the retreat was ordered Jan. 25, three days after Ethiopia's Soviet-supplied jets and field guns
began pounding rebel forces closing in on Harar.

Harar is one of Ethiopia's two remaining strongholds in the northern Ogaden desert and the scene of one of the most decisive
battles so far in the six-month-old war.

"We have made tactical withdrawals here and there," Jama Ali admitted.

"But we will resist . . we will not spare one life to save our territory.We will resist and fight to the bitter end," he told visiting
reporters.

Jama Ali is a short, stocky man who looks much older than the 25 years he claims. He is a field commander of the Western
Somali Liberation Front, the insurgent army that has taken about 97 percent of Ethiopia's Ogaden desert since July and is
fighting an uphill battle to keep it.

The insurgents, with the backing of Somalia, want to annex the Ogaden, populated predominantly by ethnic Somalis, to
Somalia.

Since about November the insurgents have been bogged down just short of Harar, where Ethiopia has amassed its new Soviet
weaponry for a counter-offensive it hopes will reverse six months of losses.

Jama Ali said the attacks were directed at two vital areas: east from Harar toward Babile and the Somali border and west from
Harar along the Harar-Dire Dawa road, Harar's only artery for supplies and reinforcements.

He claimed the effort was directed by Russians and Cubans who have poured into Marxist Ethiopia since late last year when
Somalia, once the Soviet Union's chief ally in the region, expelled Russian advisers because of Soviet support of Ethiopia
against the insurgents.

"You should not under-estimate what we are up against . . . They are soldiers of a superpower," he said.

"We have reliable information they were manning all the tanks and planes at Harar, we could hear their voices on their radios,"
he added.

The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported Monday from Addis Ababa that Ethiopia claimed "a good beginning" for the
counteroffensive.

Somali radio claimed the rebels scored victories over Ethopian troops at the Ogaden town of Negle.

Ethiopia said its forces killed 70 Somali troops and captured 150 in the new fighting east of the capital of Addis Ababa, the
Ethiopian news agency reported. The Somalis said the rebels captured large amounts of supplies at Negele.

Somalia is pushing harder in its quest for Western arms to replace the supply it lost when it expelled the Soviet Union because
of Soviet backing of Ethiopia's new Marxist government in the Ogaden conflict.

Representives of the Somalia Foreign Ministry met with ambassadors from the United States, France, England, Italy, and West
Germany over the weekend. The British said there was no direct appeal for arms, but "the trend of the conversation" made it
clear that that was what they wanted.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat brought an urgent appeal for arms to President Carter this weekend from Somali President
Mohamed Siad Barre.

Western nations, led by the United States, have refused to sell arms to Somalia in spite of massive Soviet aid to Ethiopia. The
United States considers Somalia technically to be the aggressor.

The public American role has been limited to denouncing foreign intervention in the war and urging mediation through the
Organization of African Unity.

There are reports Iran and Saudi Arabia, concerned about Soviet control of the oil shipping lanes out of the Mideast, are
sending Somalia weapons bought from the United States.

The U.S. State Department said Monday that at least 1,000 more Cuban troops have been sent to Ethopia and that Cuban
pilots may have taken part in raids against Somali forces, raising the estimated number of Cubans in the conflict to 4,500.

The United States announced it was returning its naval forces in the region to full strength after issuing the report of the Cuban
troop increase. The move will mean sending an additional destroyer to join the destroyer and destroyer tender already in the
region.

Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan confirmed for the first time Monday that Israel is supplying weapons to Ethiopia because
Ethiopia controls the sea lanes to Eilat, Israel's only access to the Red Sea.

Israeli television said the U.S. State Department knows of the sales.

There here was no comment from Washington on the report.

The Associated Press (AP)
______________________________________________________________________