COBURA STRIKES BACKCOBURAN ARMED FORCES ENTER ZARDIC INGOMO PROVINCEINGOMO – Following the Zardic invasion of the Coburan Governorate of Egato, Cobura launched its own offensive in the Zardic Province of Ingomo. Coburan forces, backed by warplanes and artillery, captured high ground and three villages near Klandeo, a city controlled by the Zardic Army that Cobura regards as a ‘’direct threat to its safety’’.The Coburan incursion is the result of ethnic cleansing of the Mallan population, initiated by the Zardic Government. following international criticism, with neighbouring Cobura being its loudest voice due to the large Mallan population there, the Zardic Imperial Assembly claimed the Coburan governorate of Egato belonged to Zardugal, thus denying Coburan sovereignty there. Next, Kostandia sent a declaration of war to the Coburan Prime Minister in Sharba. And now both nations are at war, with Zardugal invading the Coburan border town of Ezra, in the southwestern parts of the Egato governorate.
Coburan fighter jets bombed Zardic militia targets around Klandeo on Sunday. Ten people were reported killed in the bombing raids, according to Zardic militants, and three people died on the Coburan side of the border in retaliatory shelling, local people said.
Defence Minister of Cobura Smira Aganyewi said the forces intended to create a security zone about 80 miles deep inside the Zardic Province of Ingomo. The area would encompass urban centres, including the city of Klandeo, and the much larger city of, further east, as well as dozens of outlying villages. Cobura’s Prime Minister, Mane Iyassu Sidhom, has vowed to eliminate “hostile threats” in the Zardic Province, but on Sunday he promised that the operation would be swift. “Hopefully, we will complete this operation in a very short time,” he said in a speech to the House of Representatives in Sharba. “The real issue here is to protect our Cobura and the values we represent. It is extremely important for us to protect things like, democracy and liberty when nations near us do not.” Mr. Sidhom said. He said that “we have 1,2 million Zardic Mallans in our lands” and that Cobura wanted “to send our Zardic brothers back to their own land as soon as possible.” Following the ethnic cleansing by the Zardic government, hundreds of thousands of Zardic Mallans fled to neighbouring Cobura, flushing the borders.
Mrs. Aganyewi said Coburan forces would seek to destroy any logistics supply routes to Zardic units. By nightfall Coburan troops seemed to have advanced only a few miles into Zardugal.
Casualties were reported from both sides, but numbers varied.
Hanedi Hafsi, a homemaker who lives in Rehano-Defi, a border district in Cobura, said two Coburans and a Zardic soldier died Sunday afternoon from shelling by Zardic militias. The shells fell on a market, killing three and wounding 32, she said. Coburan officials said that only one Mallan refugee had died and that 37 people were wounded.