Ethiopia Says Troops Killed Senior ONLF Rebel

`Sirad and his group were killed ... while plotting to launch terrorist activities,` Dawed said in a statement.

Ethiopian troops killed a senior Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel leader last week in the east of the country, an official said on Thursday.

Dawed Mohammed Ali, administrator of the remote region bordering Somalia, said the ONLF's foreign relations chief Mohammed Sirad and an unspecified number of his colleagues were killed as they met in Ogaden's town of Danan.

The ONLF, whose fighters are estimated to number several thousand, says it is fighting for the autonomy of its ethnically Somali region and has warned foreign oil explorers against prospecting on its land.

"Sirad and his group were killed ... while plotting to launch terrorist activities," Dawed said in a statement.

"Sirad, a former regional official who joined the rebel front after stealing state funds, was conducting violence in the Somali region from his base in Eritrea," Dawed said.

He did not give any more details. The governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara routinely accuse each other of supporting guerrilla movements on the other's territory.

Both the government and rebels accuse each other of human rights abuses, and aid workers say nearly a million people in the arid area need humanitarian help.

ONLF officials could not immediately be reached for comment.