In 1889 the first four regular battalions of Eritrean soldiers were created in Asmara.

But she also said the Ethiopians, who do not have women in combat, treat the female Eritrean soldiers differently than the men.

Eritrean soldiers and police set up road blocks to keep people from the site of the attack.

He said that the attack failed to dislodge the Eritrean soldiers from their trenches but that many Ethiopians died in the attempt.

AU peacekeepers also reportedly captured some Eritrean soldiers and prisoners of war.

Eritrea claimed that 19,000 Eritrean soldiers were killed during the conflict; most reports put the total war casualties from both sides as being around 70,000.

By last June Ethiopia, by far the larger country, had pushed Eritrean soldiers deep into their own territory.

According to Djiboutian estimates, 100 Eritrean soldiers were killed, 100 captured, and 21 defected.

A third of Eritrean soldiers are female, and in the 1980's they accounted for 30 percent of the casualties.

An estimated 200,000 Eritrean soldiers are posted along the border, and another war with Ethiopia remains a real possibility.