ADDIS ABABA, Oct 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ethiopia’s military has carried out an air raid on the capital of the war-torn Tigray region that a hospital official and rebel sources said killed six people and injured 21 others.
The government said the attack on Thursday, the latest in a campaign of air bombardments, hit a factory in Mekelle used by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Dr. Hayelom Kebede, research director at Mekele’s Ayder Referral Hospital, said a residential area was hit and casualties were inflicted.
“So far six people died and 21 injured. All came to Ayder hospital,” he said.
The Tigrai Communications Affairs Bureau, a TPLF-linked information channel, reported the same toll and said the strike hit a residential area.
Nahusenay Belay, a Tigray spokesman, denied that the air raid hit a military target and said it struck a “civilian residence,” killing six people and wounding more than 20. Three children were among the dead, he said.
Earlier, TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda confirmed the attack on Mekelle and said the rebels’ air defense units were engaging an enemy jet.
A doctor said that the attack hit the residential Kebele 5 area.
Photos from the scene appeared to show rescuers pulling bodies from debris.
Tigrayan television screened pictures of Red Cross workers at the site of collapsed brick structures with corrugated iron roofs. Blankets and kettles can be seen among bloodstained wreckage. At one point, gloved volunteers hastily cover a body part with a sheet.
When asked for a comment on the alleged civilian deaths, government spokesperson Legesse Tulu replied in a text message: “There is not any intended and deliberate harm on civilians and their properties. The airstrike successfully hit its target.”
Much of northern Ethiopia is under a communications blackout and access for journalists is restricted, making battlefield claims difficult to verify independently.
Tigray was pounded by near-daily aerial bombardments last week as the military stepped up its use of airpower in the year-long war against the TPLF.
Ethiopia’s government has asserted that the latest air raids have been confined to military targets, but Tigray forces have asserted that civilian facilities including factories and a clinic have been targeted instead.
The government said the facilities bombed in northern and western Tigray were military in nature and aiding the TPLF, the former governing party in the region.
The United Nations said two attacks on Mekelle on Oct 18 killed three children and wounded several other people. Another person died in a later attack.
Control of the skies, along with superior manpower, is one of the few remaining areas where the federal government holds a military advantage over the rebels.
The bombings have drawn international censure and disrupted UN access to the region where an estimated 400,000 people face famine-like conditions under a de facto aid blockade.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region after the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a ground offensive there earlier this month, despite international calls for a ceasefire.
Tigray erupted in conflict in November 2020 after Ahmed sent troops to topple the TPLF.
The 2019 Nobel Peace laureate said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps and promised a swift victory, but by late June the rebels had regrouped and retaken most of the region, including Mekelle. — NNN-AGENCIES