Gedab News has confirmed that there was a military clash between the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) and the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) on January 21, 2006.  An ELF military communiqu� stated that it lost one combatant with two others wounded while it gave the casualty numbers for the EDF as 10 killed in action and 13 wounded.

Reached by telephone, Mr. Hussein Khelifa, who is the de-facto chairman of the ELF, explained that the clash occurred in Shenshelyay, southeast of Geluj in the Gash region (Western Eritrea).  According to Hussein Khelifa, the clash occurred while the ELF was conducting a meeting with the residents of the region and the EDF was scouting the region for opposition forces.

In a recent development, on February 12, 2006, a vehicle carrying members of EDF exploded in the vicinity of Barentu, killing six soldiers. Relatives were told that the vehicle hit a landmine.  Asked about the incident, Mr. Hussein Khelifa said he has no information on the matter but explained that the region has many armed groups including Ethiopian and Sudanese rebel forces as well as EDF members who have deserted their units.   

Hussein Khelifa is also the head of the Executive Office of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA), an umbrella group of over a dozen Eritrean opposition fronts and parties.