"After the Ethiopian blitzkrieg of the last two days, the Eritrean army was demolished at midnight," said government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse.

For years rebel Ethiopian and Eritrean armies had fought together against the Marxist dictator of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was overthrown in 1991.

Eritrean army is composed of four separate corps, each broken into 20 infantry brigades, single commando division and one mechanized brigade.

The current Eritrean army is an outgrowth of the revolutionary Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).

Since liberation, and the selection of Sebhat Ephrem as Minister of Defence, the Eritrean army has experienced a major transformation.

Both Irob woreda and its urban center of Alitena were occupied by the Eritrean army during the early months of the Eritrean-Ethiopian War.

However, eyewitness accounts pointed to the Eritrean army.

An Eritrean government spokesman admitted that the Ethiopian flag now flew over Zalambessa, but denied that the Eritrean army had been forced from the town.

The Eritrean army, she said, "was smashed, kicked, destroyed, devastated, humiliated and sent packing and running."

Many women are in the Eritrean army, and the baby may have indicated just how the war has become a part of normal life in Ethiopia and Eritrea over two years.