Armed Eritrean mutineers have left the information ministry that they seized on Monday, with the capital Asmara reported to be calm, diplomats and opposition members said Tuesday.

"The situation today is very, very quiet. There is no visible military presence in the city, the tanks have gone," a European diplomat in the city told Agence France Presse.

Eritrean army tanks besieged the information ministry in central Asmara on Monday after some 200 mutineers seized the building to call for political reform, diplomatic and diaspora sources said Monday.

No shots had been fired and the rest of the city appeared calm, the diplomats added, although very few details were immediately available.

Israel has turned back dozens of African asylum-seekers, mostly Eritreans, trying enter the country from Egypt, Human Rights Watch and two other NGOs said on Sunday.

"Since June, Israeli forces patrolling Israel's newly constructed ... border fence with Egypt's Sinai region have denied entry to dozens of Africans, mostly Eritreans," HRW and Israeli NGOs the Hotline for Migrant Workers and Physicians for Human Rights said in a joint statement.

Fifty-four migrants trying to reach Italy died of thirst when their inflatable boat ruptured in the Mediterranean, according to testimony from the sole survivor, the U.N. refugee agency said.

The rescued man, who drank sea water to survive, was spotted clinging to a jerry can and the remains of the stricken boat off the Tunisian coast on Monday night by fishermen who alerted the coast guard, the UNHCR said.

Eritrea will not retaliate after rival neighbor Ethiopia attacked its territory, dismissing charges it harbors armed groups against Addis Ababa as a "base and bogus lie."

"It is those who do not know the price of war who are hungry to go to war," Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told AFP by telephone.

Ethiopia attacked an Eritrean military base on Thursday over the killing five European tourists on its territory earlier this year, accusing its neighbor of training "hit-and-run terrorists".

Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal also threatened further attacks against its neighbor so long as it posed a threat to its security and warned Eritrea against any retaliation.

Ethiopian security forces were Thursday searching for gunmen who killed five European tourists and kidnapped at least two others and two guides in an attack it blamed on arch-rival Eritrea.

"We are working on how to respond to the attack... there are security operators there," said foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti.

Ethiopian security forces were Thursday searching for gunmen who killed five European tourists and kidnapped at least two others and two guides in an attack it blamed on arch-rival Eritrea.

"We are working on how to respond to the attack... there are security operators there," said foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti.

Ethiopia said Wednesday that five tourists killed in an attack blamed on terrorists in the northeast were all European, and that two other foreigners in the group had been kidnapped.

The government confirmed the attack, first reported by state television late on Tuesday, and blamed terrorists backed by its arch-foe neighbor Eritrea.

Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private U.S. study released Tuesday.

"Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent)," said the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life study.