By Omar Hassan

DJIBOUTI, June 11 (Reuters) - Two Djiboutian soldiers were killed and 17 wounded after troops from the tiny Red Sea state clashed with neighbouring Eritrea along their common border, a Reuters witness said.

Eritrean and Djiboutian soldiers began exchanging fire on Tuesday afternoon after several months of tensions.

Fighting continued on Wednesday, Djibouti's Ministry of Defence said. Eritrean officials declined to comment.

The two countries clashed in the remote Horn of Africa region in the 1990s.

A Reuters witness at a French hospital in Djibouti said helicopters had ferried in dead and wounded soldiers. The Defence Ministry did not confirm the numbers.

Troops from the two nations have faced-off along the border since mid-April when Djibouti accused Asmara of digging trenches and building fortifications on the Djiboutian side of the frontier.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki told Reuters in a recent interview that the claim was a "fabrication."

The Djiboutian army says nearly 75 percent of its troops are now stationed along its boundary with Eritrea. Djibouti hosts French military bases. It is also the main route to the sea for Eritrea's landlocked arch foe Ethiopia.

The clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday took place in the Mount Gabla area in northern Djibouti, the Djiboutian Defence Ministry was quoted as saying.

At the weekend, an African Union fact-finding mission was in Djibouti to investigate the issue. The two nations had clashed over the border in the 1990s.

Djibouti says fighting began after Eritreans tried to shoot some of its own deserters, and Djiboutian troops returned fire.

A second outbreak late on Tuesday occurred when Asmara demanded the return of its troops, Djibouti says.

No independent verification could be made of the claim.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kimball in Asmara)

(Editing by Wangui Kanina and Matthew Tostevin)

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