Backed by warplanes and armored units, Ethiopia deployed a 10,000-man force alongside thousands of Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) rebels.

[15] Despite their efforts, Ethiopian troops and SSDF guerrillas failed to capture the key cities of Galkayo and Beledweyne, as the Somali army successfully repelled the main assault.

[19] The invasion ultimately played to the advantage of Somali President Siad Barre,[16] whose regime saw a surge in domestic support.

[20] After World War II, leaders in the Somali inhabited Ogaden region of the Ethiopian Empire repeatedly put forward demands for self-determination, only to be ignored by both Emperor Haile Sellasie and the United Nations.

[31][32] They were accompanied by 2,000 to 5,000 Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) rebels, who were similarly armed with tanks and received support from Ethiopian artillery and air forces.

In late June 1982, 15,000 Ethiopian army troops and thousands of SSDF rebels invaded across the border in the Hiran and Mudug region.

[36] The first offensive came at the border town of Ferfer near Beledweyne, in an attempt to capture the high ground overlooking a vital roadway connecting north and south Somalia.

The SSDF claimed responsibility for all these attacks, an assertion deemed implausible given the group's limited military capacity and its primarily localized operations near Galkayo in the Mudug region.

[36] An Ethiopian armored column of 30 to 45 T-55 tanks backed by two artillery battalions overran the town and advanced 11 km into Somalia.

The Somali army commander at the town of El Dhere organized a counter-attack and pushed the offensive back to 3 km outside Balanbale.

[17] Limited confrontations took place at several other points further north, while the Ethiopian Air Force bombed and strafed Galkayo airport.

[20] The Ethiopian and SSDF forces never reached their objectives of Galkayo and Beledweyne, but were instead halted to a stalemate at border towns of Balanbale and Galdogob.

[34] It was persistently rumored the Barre had allowed the occupation of the two towns in order to drum up a case for further foreign military aid deliveries.

[47] No foreign troops were known to be directly engaged in the fighting during 1982, though the Ethiopians saw Cuban and South Yemeni military assistance confined at the division level.

[17] At the time of the invasion, 10,000 Cuban troops along with 3,000 Soviet and East German military advisers were deployed in the Somali Ogaden region.

[38] On several occasions, Somali army technicians and intelligence officers intercepted Spanish and Russian radio traffic during Ethiopian military operations.

[50] Irritated by this development, the Ethiopian government put then head of the SSDF Abdullahi Yusuf in jail, where he remained until the Fall of the Derg regime in 1991.

[51] During SSDF internal fighting during 1983 and 1984, Ethiopian security forces entered their camps and arrested the rebels central committee members.