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Ethiopian rebels deny responsibility for deadly attack

Ethiopian rebels who killed 74 people in a raid on a Chinese-run oilfield denied yesterday they were behind a deadly grenade attack on mourners.

The government blamed the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) for the blast, which killed two people at a memorial service in the regional capital Jijiga on Thursday. The ONLF has said it launched Tuesday's pre-dawn assault on the oilfield.

"The terrorists who have done the massacre have done this. This horrible incident has been committed by the ONLF," said Zemedkun Tekle, an Ethiopian government spokesman. He said that he did not know what device was used or have any other details.

Bereket Simon, an adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said that the device was a grenade, but he did not know who was responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile the ONLF denied the accusations: "We wish to make clear that it is the policy of the ONLF not to deliberately harm civilians or carry out military operations targeting civilians," the separatist group said in a statement.

It said the grenade attack was triggered by a dispute between soldiers gathered to mourn a colleague killed in the raid in the remote east, some 100km south of Jijiga.

The assault on the oil exploration field was one of the worst attacks on Beijing's growing economic interests in Africa.

The ONLF killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers, and seized seven Chinese. The group says the seven are well and will be freed when the military stops activities in the area.

The rebels have repeatedly warned investors they would not allow oil and gas exploration in the Ogaden region as long as local people were "denied their rights to self-determination."

The Chinese staff worked for Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, part of Sinopec, China's biggest refiner and petrochemicals producer.

China has condemned the attack, which underscored the risks big oil companies face when drilling in Africa.

Meanwhile, Ethiopian television broadcast interviews late on Thursday with Ethiopian hostages who had been held in Eritrea by a different rebel group in the northern Afar region.

The eight men, who were held for more than a month after fellow European hostages were released, lambasted their captors and said they were Eritrean. Their comments threatened to worsen the tension between Ethiopia and its regional rival.

The hostages said they were forced to walk barefoot for five days to Eritrea and then placed in a "hot and uncomfortable" prison, where they were interrogated and beaten by Eritrean soldiers and officials.
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