Eritrea's capital was calm but tense yesterday after the deadline for an Ethiopian moratorium on bombing raids passed with no sign of further attacks. With no end in sight to the bewildering undeclared war between the Horn of Africa neighbours, Asmara residents had faced the threat of more bombing raids from 4 a.m., when Ethiopia's 13-hour suspension ended.
The let-up allowed nearly 2,000 foreign nationals to flee the capital on evacuation flights sent by the United States, Germany, Russia, Italy, Britain and the United Nations.
Ethiopian MiG fighters have hit Asmara airport three times since the war between the former comrades over a barren border area erupted on Friday. But the border clash - overshadowed by the aerial battle - continued yesterday with Ethiopia saying it had retaken its frontier town of Zalambessa and ejected the Eritrean force which captured it last week.
Zalambessa lies outside disputed territory claimed by both sides in their border war but was occupied by Eritrea on Tuesday.
A foreign ministry official said Ethiopian troops defeated a brigade-strength Eritrean force which had occupied the town and chased them back across the border. The official said skirmishes were continuing.
The departure at 2 a.m. yesterday of the last evacuation flight ended the busiest night in the history of Asmara international airport, since Eritrea ceased to be a province of Ethiopia and gained independence in 1993.
Airport staff estimated that nearly 2,000 foreigners had left on board a dozen planes overnight. Among them were 200 Ethiopians flown out as a security measure against possible reprisals.
The United Nations pulled out all but five international staff.
Many foreigners feared heavy reprisals for Friday's strafing of streets in the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele by an Eritrean warplane. The 47 civilian victims, at least 10 of them children, were buried on Saturday as popular anger mounted in Ethiopia.
Residents of Addis Ababa called for revenge on Saturday, but yesterday orthodox Christians in the capital - which has a history of Christianity dating back to the fourth century AD - prayed for peace in response to a week of prayer called by church leaders.
Ethiopia's population of 60 million dwarfs Eritrea's by 15 to one but both countries have huge armies by African standards. Eritrea became independent after a referendum in 1993, and the two countries enjoyed friendly relations until the sudden clash last month over a rocky 400 square km (155 square mile) triangle of land which both claim.
The leaders of both countries remained bellicose.
President Isaya Afewerki was hailed by crowds during a walkabout in Asmara on Saturday. He accused Ethiopia of being the aggressor and insisted that fighting would continue for as long as Ethiopia hit Eritrean targets.
In Addis Ababa, some 800 km (500 miles) away, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, said the global community must "talk sense into the leadership in Asmara" if the conflict were to be peacefully resolved.
The heads of Ethiopia's nine federal states said they had started mobilising combatants to wage the war.
President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro of Italy appealed for peace in a letter to both presidents and said historical evidence showed there was no ambiguity about the border. "What is happening, therefore, is absurd in all respects.