The Ethiopian government said its latest airstrike today is targeted at facilities the Tigray People’s Liberation Front -TPLF has turned into arms construction and repair armaments sites.
A government source Legesse Tulu, said the TPLF have been adept at hiding munitions and heavy artillery in places of worship and using ordinary Tigrayans as a human shield”, Ethiopia’s government spokesman.
Today’s air raids is seen as an apparent escalation of the near yearlong conflict in northern Ethiopia pitting government forces and their allies against the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front -TPLF, which once-dominant party in government.
Meanwhile, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael is quoted to have told @reuters that the government-controlled force is desperate on the war front, hence the latest bombing to cover up the fact that they are losing on the ground, a clear sign that they don’t care about Tigrayan civilians he added.
He also added that the strike did not hit the engineering complex, but hit another private company compound, but he had no further details.
The blast shattered the windows of Mekelle General Hospital, about one kilometer away, and damaged nearby homes, said one of the witnesses, a doctor at the hospital who also disclosed that they have received five wounded people, four of whom are employees of the factory and the fifth a lady whose lives near the factory.
Tigrai’s controlled Television said the attack targeted the centre of the city posting only photographs that have been geolocated by Reuters to be Mekelle of what appeared to be plumes of billowing smoke but gave no details of casualties or damage.
The two sides have been fighting for almost a year in a conflict that has killed thousands of people and displaced more than two million.
