Ethiopia government confirms air strike on Tigrayan training centre

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Ethiopia government confirms air strike on Tigrayan training centre

Smoke billows from the scene of an air strike in Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region of Ethiopia, October 20, 2021. ADDIS ABABA, Oct 21 Reuters - Ethiopia carried out an air strike on the city of Mekelle for the third day this week, a government spokesperson said, in a campaign to weaken rebellious Tigrayan forces they have been fighting for nearly a year.

Spokesperson Legesse Tulu told Reuters the strike succeeded in hitting a Tigrayan training centre used by the military forces. He said the centre was a former base, known as the Ethiopian military command, for the Ethiopian military in the area.

War broke out in November 2020 between federal troops and the Tigray People's Liberation Front TPLF which ruled Ethiopia for three decades but now controls only the northern region. Thousands of people have been forced to flee and more than 2 million people have been killed.

TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda told Reuters that a fighter jet had been hovering over the city of Mekelle on Thursday afternoon and had made several sorties, but to his knowledge the plane had not managed to hit any targets.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm either the government statement or that from the TPLF.