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UN compound in Eritrea boomed
The United Nations said on Thursday its mission in Eritrea had been targeted by a bomb attack early this week but it did not cause any casualties. The explosion took place on Tuesday night at a building in the western town of Barentu. "A loud explosion was heard," Force Commander Major-General Robert Gordon told a press conference on Thursday. "In terms of the damage caused, there was nobody injured." The U.N. mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) mans the border between the two countries, separating two sides of a bitter 1998-2000 war which killed some 70,000 people. Officials said early UN investigations had shown the explosion was likely to have been caused by a small home made device. Phil Lewis, the head of the UNâs demining operation said: "Itâs most likely to have been something thrown over the wall in some sort of improvised bag or pipe." The government has blamed previous attacks in the west of the Horn of Africa country on rebels it says are backed by Sudan. Abrahaley Kifle, Eritrean commissioner for coordination with the UN mission, said the cause was not clear but the blast may have been an old landmine detonated by the vibration of generators.Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-01-23 |
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