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Ethiopia’s prime minister has ordered federal military forces to launch a “final offensive” on the capital of the restive Tigray region after his 72-hour ultimatum for dissident local leaders to surrender expired.
In a statement posted on social media, Abiy Ahmed said great care would be taken to protect innocent civilians from harm and said efforts would be made by government troops to ensure the city of Mekelle, which has a population of 500,000, was not “severely damaged”.
A surrender deadline for Tigray forces is just hours away with Ethiopia’s military threatening to bombard the regional capital – a city of half a million people.
Ethiopia’s prime minister on Wednesday rejected growing international demands for dialogue and a halt to deadly fighting in the northern Tigray region as “interference”, saying his country will handle the conflict on its own as the 72-hour surrender ultimatum expires at 16:30 GMT.
Two bomb blasts killed at least seven people and wounded scores on Tuesday in areas of northwest Syria near the Turkish border and under heavy Turkish influence, witnesses and police sources said.
Five people were killed and 20 wounded, some critically, in a blast that exploded at a road junction on the outskirts of the city of al Bab, north of Aleppo province, they said.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi) has appointed one of its members to head the terrorist group to replace Abdelmalek Droukdel, killed last June during a French military operation in northern Mali.
The new leader from Algeria is an influential member of Aqmi, named Abu Obaida Yusuf al-Annabi.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave Tigrayan regional forces 72 hours to surrender before the military begins an offensive on the regional capital of Mekelle.
“We urge you to surrender peacefully within 72 hours, recognising that you are at the point of no return,” Abiy said in a Twitter message on Sunday evening.
About 23 mortar shells slammed into different parts of the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing at least eight people and wounding 31 others, an official said.
The shells were fired from two cars, Interior Ministry spokesperson Tariq Arian said. No one took immediate responsibility for the early morning attack that also targeted the posh Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul, which houses diplomatic missions.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief of terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, has died in Afghanistan, according to a report. However, Al-Qaeda is yet to confirm the purported death of al-Zawahiri. According to a report by Arab News, al-Zawahiri reportedly died of natural causes.
Arab News reported that Zawahiri died in Ghazni due to asthma. He had had last appeared in a video message on the anniversary of 9/11 attacks in the US.