DATE=6/11/98
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-233760
TITLE=ETHIOPIA/ERITREA BOMBING ADIGRAT
BYLINE=SCOTT STERNS
DATELINE=ADIGRAT
INTRO: ERITREAN JETS BOMBED THE ETHIOPIAN TOWN OF ADIGRAT THURSDAY. V-O-A SCOTT STEARNS IN ADIGRAT REPORTS AT LEAST FOUR PEOPLE WERE KILLED, AND MORE THAN 30 WOUNDED.
TEXT: ERITREAN JETS AND HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS ATTACKED ADIGRAT JUST PAST FIVE P-M LOCAL TIME. THEY DROPPED EIGHT BOMBS, NARROWLY MISSING A CHURCH AND PHARMACEUTICALS FACTORY, AND SCORING A DIRECT HIT ON A GRAIN WAREHOUSE WHERE PEOPLE WORKED THROUGH THE NIGHT TO PUT OUT BURNING FIRES OF SORGHUM AND CLEAR AWAY TWISTED METAL ROOFING SHEETS.
THREE CIVILIANS WERE KILLED WAITING TO COLLECT FOOD AT THE GRAIN WAREHOUSE. THREE BOMBS LANDED HERE, KILLING ONE IN A NEARBY HOUSE, WOUNDING MORE THAN A DOZEN CIVILIANS AND DESTROYING A STOREROOM.
ADIGRAT IS ABOUT 35 KILOMETERS SOUTH OF THE BORDER, WHERE THERE HAS BEEN HEAVY FIGHTING OVER THE LAST WEEK AROUND THE TOWN OF ZALLAMBASA.
THE BOMBING OF ADIGRAT AGAIN EXPANDS THE SCOPE OF THIS WAR, WITH FIGHTING NOW ALSO REPORTED NEAR THE BORDER WITH DJIBOUTI. (SIGNED)
NEB/SS/WDC/MMK
11-Jun-98 4:12 PM EDT (2012 UTC)
Source: Voice of America
"Witnesses said several helicopters and one warplane carried out the attack in which a grain silo was hit and set ablaze. Four people were reportedly killed and another 30 wounded.
A BBC correspondent in Adigrat spoke of injured civilians lining the corridors of the town's hospital, and of children screaming in pain as staff treated their shrapnel wounds.