The TPLF army has sustained considerable losses in the fighting on the Mereb-Setit front in the past two days. Ethiopia opened new attacks on this front on Wednesday in the aftermath of, and to cushion its devastating defeat at, the Tsorona front last Tuesday.
In two days of fighting between March 17th and 18th on the Mereb-Setit front:
The TPLF army suffered a devastating defeat on the Tsorona front in the battles that it unleashed on Sunday, March 14, and that raged for three days until Tuesday mid-morning:
Yet, while thousands of its troops fell like leaves on the Tsorona battlefront, the callous TPLF regime denied at first that any fighting was taking place at all. This was later qualified as "routine shelling and skirmishes." When the battle ended on Tuesday, the TPLF regime continued to lie to its people. The TPLF regime continues to maintain this appalling lie, branding it as "a drama staged by Eritrea," even as its huge debacle has been witnessed now by journalists from the BBC, Swiss Radio and TV, Der Spiegel, Xinhua News Agency, Al Hayat, and Al Sharq Al Awsat among others and footage of the ghastly battle scene is being broadcast worldwide by major TV networks.
The TPLF regime started the current battles on March 14th in defiance of UN Security Council calls urging it "to stop its continued military action." The Ethiopian regime has further reneged on its earlier acceptance of the OAU Framework, rejecting any cease-fire unless its new preconditions are met.
Ethiopian Antonov bombers, MiG aircraft and helicopter gunships bombed the civilian districts of Molki and the environs of Shambiqo in the past two days in retaliation for the heavy defeat that the regime has sustained on the Tsorona front. Twenty eight civilians were killed and 42 others wounded in air raids carried out by the Ethiopian air force in Deda Lalai, Hazemo, Adi Qwala, Shambiqo and Kinafna in the past few weeks.