Over sixty dead from Ethiopian airstrike in Tigray

Sixty-four people are dead and 100 others wounded after a military airstrike hit the Ethiopian region of Tigray, The Associated Press reported.

The Ethiopian military claimed responsibility for the airstrike Thursday that hit a local supermarket just two days before. 

Ethiopian military spokesperson Col. Getnet Adane told reporters that the force ordered the attack due to Tigray fighters celebrating Martyrs Day. 

“The Ethiopian air force uses the latest technology, so it conducted a precision strike that was successful,” Adane said, according to the wire service. 

Adane added that military forces were deployed in the region for the country’s election on Monday. 

The military said that only combatants were targeted, but a physician told the AP that civilians, including mothers and children, were effected by the attack. There were very few young men at the scene. 

The doctor old the newswire that arriving at the scene was “horrible,” and that soldiers were blocking medical professionals from attending to the scene after the attack. 

“It was very traumatizing,” The health official told the AP “I think most of the patients, they died because we were late there, because care wasn’t available.”

The health official added that bodies were still being pulled from the rubble and victims still being transported to nearby hospitals two days after the airstrike, according to the AP. 

The news makes the attack one of the region’s worst yet as Ethiopia, aided by Eritrea, goes after Tigray People’s Liberation Front leaders. The U.S. imposed sanctions in May over the conflict in the area. 

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters that they weren’t able to be at the scene, saying the ongoing conflict has prevented them from getting “clearance,” the AP noted. 

Both the U.S. and the European Union (EU) condemned the airstrike.  

More than thousands of people have died from the ongoing conflict and two million people have been displaced.