In the frame: the ONLF has taken responsibility for the raid. Young recruits to the rebel group are pictured here signalling their willingness to fight Mogadishu at a ceremony to mark the group's 22nd anniversary in August last year
74 killed in ONLF oilfield attack
About 200 gunmen from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) raided an oilfield operated by China's Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau in Ethiopia this morning, killing at least 74 people and taking seven hostage.
The ONLF claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement sent to the Associated Press they had launched "military operations against units of the Ethiopian armed forces guarding an oil exploration site", in the east of the country.
The statement did not mention the seven workers taken hostage.
Official Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Zhongyuan offical Xu Shuang as saying at least nine Chinese workers were killed in the raid. Zhongyuang is a unit of China's Sinopec.
The hostages are all believed to be Chinese nationals. About 65 Ethiopians were killed in the attack.
Xu said the attack on facilities in Abole came at about 6am local time.
The gunmen briefly took control of the facility, before a 50-minute shoot-out with the 100 government troops protecting the field. There were 37 Chinese employees and about 120 Ethiopian workers on site at the time, Xu said.
The Chinese embassy in Addis Ababa has confirmed reports of the raid.
A spokeswoman for the embassy told Reuters: "I can confirm that a number of people were killed. They are Chinese and Ethiopian. Some Chinese have also been kidnapped. I cannot comment on numbers at the moment."
The ONLF warned last year that any investment in the Ogaden area that also benefited the Ethiopian government "would not be tolerated", an AP report said.
The ONLF is fighting a low-level insurgency with the aim of creating an independent state for ethnic Somalis. Somalia lost control of the region in a war in 1977.
The rebel group also has been fighting Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, where Ethiopia has been backing the government in crushing an Islamic movement and re-establishing control over the country.