PARIS (AFP) - Ethiopia on Friday launched fresh airstrikes on the capital of the Tigray region, the fourth day this week the city has come under attack, a government spokeswoman siad.
Friday’s operation targeted a training centre used by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group, Billene Seyoum said, adding that it was “also serving as a battle network hub by the terrorist organization”.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has been locked in a nearly year-long war against the TPLF, though Tigray itself has seen little combat since late June, when the rebels seized control of much of Ethiopia’s northernmost region and the military largely withdrew.
On Monday Ethiopia’s air force launched two strikes in Tigray’s capital Mekele that the UN said killed three children and wounded several other people.
And on Wednesday it bombed TPLF weapons caches in Mekele and the town of Agbe, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the west.
A hospital official told AFP that Wednesday’s strike in Mekele injured at least eight people, including a pregnant woman.
A fourth strike in Mekele on Thursday did not result in any casualties, according to medics and the TPLF.
There was no immediate word on casualties Friday, but two humanitarian sources said a UN flight bound for Mekele was forced to return to Addis Ababa because of the strikes.
The international community has voiced alarm about the attacks.
Dessie residents on Thursday reported a heavy military presence in the area as displaced civilians from conflict-hit towns farther north continued to arrive.