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| Africa Horn |
| Chinese oil workers massacred in attack by army of 200 rebels linked to Islamists |
| 2007-04-26 |
| The rebels arrived just before dawn as the Chinese oil workers slept. The assault lasted less than an hour. But by the time an estimated 200 gunmen left the remote oil installation, 74 people lay dead in the biggest and most bloody attack mounted by Somali separatist rebels in a dusty corner of Ethiopia. The Ogaden National Liberation Front, a group with links to the ousted Islamic courts in Somalia, later claimed responsibility in a military communiqué sent to The Times. It is fighting for a separate homeland for the Ogaden region’s population of Somali nomads, with the backing of Eritrea. Last year the group gave warning that it would target foreign oil companies. Ethiopia watchers said that they were surprised by the scale of the attack and that it was likely to be linked to unrest in Somalia, which has long threatened to drag the Horn of Africa into a regional war. Nine Chinese oil workers and 65 Ethiopians died, according to officials from both countries. Bereket Simon, spokesman for the Ethiopian Prime Minister, said that the attack was an act of terrorism. “This is a cowardly act that has been done under the cover of night,” he said by telephone from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. “They have been planting bombs in many places but this is the first time they have killed so many people in cold blood. We will do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice.” Mr Simon said that reinforcements had been sent to the oilfield in Abole, about 240 miles (390km) from the state capital, Jijiga. A Chinese oil worker who witnessed the attack said that about 200 gunmen arrived at 5am. They opened fire on 100 soldiers guarding the site in a battle that lasted almost an hour, said Xu Shuang, acting manager of the oil company involved. He said that the gunmen took control of the oilfield briefly before escaping with another seven hostages. The workers were employed by the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, part of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, the Chinese Xinhua news agency reported. A statement released by the Ogaden rebels said that their “Dufaan” commando unit had completely destroyed the oil installation and three units of Ethiopian government forces. “The ONLF has stated on numerous occasions that we will not allow the mineral resources of our people to be exploited by this regime or any firm that it enters into an illegal contract with so long as the people of Ogaden are denied their rights to self-determina-tion,” the statement said. The region, which is the size of Britain, is one of the poorest in Ethiopia. Roads are scarce and vast swaths are entirely inaccessible during the rainy season. Barely 15 per cent of children attend schools. David Shinn, a former US Ambassador to Ethiopia, said that the scale of the attack was unprecedented and could be linked to Addis Ababa’s role in Somalia. “It might indicate growing unrest in the region generally and particularly in Somalia itself, and that might be giving additional support to the ONLF in the Ogaden.” Last year a United Nations arms-monitoring report revealed that ONLF leaders were frequent visitors to the Somali home of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who later rose to power as hardline leader of the Union of Islamic Courts. ONLF members visited his home in central Somalia to collect arms sent from Eritrea, which has a history of supporting Ethiopia’s opponents. Sheikh Aweys is wanted by the US in connection with Islamic terrorism. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #14 Not Chieftains.... Churchillz. Getting gray-brained. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-04-26 17:48 |
| #13 Ah, for the good old days when France liked Israel; unlike today, when a Canadian friend commented to me that over there recently her son used his French more than his Hebrew. Ariel Sharon would have been pleased that so many French Jews followed his advice, and saddened that it proved necessary. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-04-26 17:48 |
| #12 According to Dayan's book, in 1956 the mainstay of Israeli armor was the by then hopelessly obsolete Sherman M3 (his own words). In addition to early Sherman models inherent defects, Israeli Shermans suffered from lots of track problems during thed campaign since they lacked purposefully built desert tracks. In anumber of occasions, israli tanks were left scattered on the road due to meachnical problems and the first ones arrived after the battle. Fortunately, they got some state of the art AMX tanks from the French a few months before the war. It is not clear these had desert tracks. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-04-26 17:13 |
| #11 In 1956 and 1967 it was mainly dieselized Shermans and Cheiftains against commie steel. Then M60s and Cheiftans aginst T-62z et.al. in '73, don't think the Merkava was around in numbers till after '73. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-04-26 14:50 |
| #10 In Kursk the engines of Panthers catched fire spontaneously due to Panther being ten tons heavier than initailly planned. Also superhevay assult guns completely unpenetrable to Soviet AT weapons fell to mere infantrymen armed wuth flamethrowers: they had no machine guns to protect themselves against infantry and they had continued advancing after froiendly infantry and tanks had beeeen stopped. In Middle East it was Merkavas against Soviet Tanks but it was also Israeli crews against Arab ones. In the 1956 war, the Egyptians had by far the best tanks and they were still clobbered. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-04-26 11:54 |
| #9 They're building a lot of ships now, but the guys who work for my company say the quality is pretty low. Same old communist ethic - quantity instead of quality. Worked okay at Kursk (although an argument can be made that a large portion of the Russian tanks at Kursk were at least as good as what the Germans were able to field in force); proven incorrect time and again with the Israeli's vs whomever especially in the 6-Day War (Israeli Merkava's vs Egyptian/Syrian Russian-made T-10s). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-04-26 10:33 |
| #8 And certainly not up to the standards of the Mightiest Military Force In The World - the Stupendous, the Colossal, the Speeding-Express-Train-Without-Brakes, the one, the ONLY --- Islamic Republic of IRAN! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-04-26 07:13 |
| #7 They're building a lot of ships now, but the guys who work for my company say the quality is pretty low. Certainly not up to Korean standards and orders of magnitude below Japanese standards. |
| Posted by: Mac 2007-04-26 06:22 |
| #6 WE: Might be a good area to test some of their nifty new weapons systems. China has developed some new weapons systems. But "nifty" isn't a word I hear much in association with Chinese-made goods. That goes double for weapons systems. Think cr*ppy, sh*tty, et al. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-04-26 04:17 |
| #5 Somali Separatist Rebels? Somali was seperate from Ethiopia last time I checked... |
| Posted by: Vinegar Ulogum7733 2007-04-26 04:12 |
| #4 I look forward to more mischief against the ChiCom interests in the area. When the Muslims start beheading and kidnapping for ransom, I'm waiting to see the ChiCom response. Might be a good area to test some of their nifty new weapons systems. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970 2007-04-26 01:27 |
| #3 Whatcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do, when the islamists come for you? PRC. PRC. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-04-26 00:54 |
| #2 "National Liberation Front" > so a Commie-led/suppor group has attacked other comrade Commies??? Lest we fergit, NEWSMAX [Y2000] > CHINA IN SUDAN: AN ARMY, OR WORKERS? 700,000 alleged soldiers of the PLA, wid large numbers wilfully disguised, and PAID, as "civilian" labor. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-26 00:39 |
| #1 Shucks, China, why'd anyone want to disrupt your harmless forays into the region? Memo to the PRC Politburo: FOAD. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-26 00:29 |