* Ethiopia bombs Tigray capital, sources say
* African, European nations push for talks, say diplomats
* 'Give us time,' responds Addis Ababa
* Tigray leader says air strikes smashed dam and sugar
factory
(Adds report of fatalities)
By Giulia Paravicini and David Lewis
ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Ethiopia resisted
international pressure for mediation in a war in the country's
north on Monday as its air force bombed the Tigrayan capital
Mekelle, according to diplomatic and military sources.
Hundreds have died, 25,000 refugees have fled to Sudan and
there have been reports of atrocities since Prime Minister Abiy
Ahmed ordered air strikes and a ground offensive on Nov. 4
against Tigray's local rulers for defying his authority.
But Africa's youngest leader, who won a Nobel Peace Prize
last year, has so far resisted pressure for talks to end a
conflict that has spilled into neighbouring Eritrea and
threatened to destabilise the wider Horn of Africa.
"We are saying 'Give us time'. It's not going to take until
eternity ... it will be a short-lived operation," Redwan
Hussein, spokesman for the government's Tigray crisis task
force, told reporters.
"We have never asked Uganda or any other country to
mediate," Redwan added, after Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni
met Ethiopia's foreign minister and appealed for negotiations.
Ethiopia's air force dropped bombs in and around Mekelle on
Monday, four diplomatic and military sources told Reuters. They
had no word on casualties or damage and there was no immediate
information from the Ethiopian government.
Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People's
Liberation Front (TPLF), said at least two civilians had been
killed and a number wounded. He said in a text message to
Reuters that while Mekelle had been bombed, the town of Alamata
in southern Tigray had been hit by a drone attack.
Ethiopia's task force said earlier that federal troops had
"liberated" Alamata from the TPLF.
The Tigray flare-up could jeopardise the recent opening up
of Ethiopia's economy, stir ethnic bloodshed elsewhere around
Africa's second most populous nation, and tarnish the reputation
of Abiy, 44, who won his Nobel for pursuing peace with Eritrea.
The TPLF, which governs the region of 5 million people, has
accused Eritrea of sending tanks and soldiers over the border
against it.
Eritrea denies that.
Tigray forces fired rockets into Eritrea at the weekend.
With communications mainly down and media barred, Reuters
could not independently verify assertions made by all sides.
'INFLICTING SUFFERING'
There was no immediate comment from Tigray's leaders about
Alamata, about 120 km (75 miles) from Mekelle.
Debretsion urged the United Nations and African Union to
condemn Ethiopia's federal troops, accusing them of using
high-tech weaponry including drones in attacks he said destroyed
a dam and a sugar factory.
"Abiy Ahmed is waging this war on the people of Tigray and
is responsible for the purposeful infliction of human
suffering," he said.
The government has denied targeting the dam or civilian
locations, but has not commented on the sugar factory.
Tigray leaders accuse Abiy, from the largest Oromo ethnic
group, of persecuting them and purging them from government and
security forces over the last two years. He says they rose up
against him by attacking a military base.
Amnesty International has denounced the killing of scores
and possibly hundreds of civilian labourers in a massacre that
both sides have blamed on each other.
Museveni tweeted that he met Demeke Mekonnen, Ethiopia's
foreign minister and deputy prime minister, in Uganda.
"There should be negotiations and the conflict stopped, lest
it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy,"
he said in a tweet later deleted.
REGIONAL EXHORTATIONS
Demeke went on to Kenya afterwards.
"Everybody is encouraging talks, it's very urgent," said
Mahboub Maalim, a Kenyan diplomat who heads the Nairobi-based
regional think-tank Sahan. "We should focus on a ceasefire."
Kenya and Djibouti urged a peaceful resolution and the
opening of humanitarian corridors, while Nigeria's former
president Olusegun Obasanjo went to Ethiopia. European nations were also weighing in, diplomats said, with
Norway planning to send a special envoy.
One diplomat said Ethiopia's army was reporting it had
retaken 60% of Tigray and was planning a multi-pronged offensive
on Mekelle, aiming to reach it in three days.
The Ethiopian National Defence Force has around 140,000
personnel and plenty of experience from fighting Somali
militants, rebels in border regions, and Eritrea. But many senior officers were Tigrayan, much of its most
powerful weaponry is there and the TPLF has seized the powerful
Northern Command's headquarters in Mekelle.
The TPLF itself has a formidable history, spearheading the
rebel march to Addis Ababa that ousted a Marxist dictatorship in
1991 and bearing the brunt of the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea
that killed hundreds of thousands.
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FACTBOX-Ethiopia's main ethnic groups events leading to Ethiopia's crisis in Tigray
Nobel Prize to fighting former comrades: Ethiopia's PM Abiy
Map https://tmsnrt.rs/38nQzp0
FACTBOX-How Ethiopia's Tigray conflict imperils region
leader says Ethiopian air strikes have killed
civilians forces fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray conflict
Tigray back in spotlight as Ethiopia conflict
flares 5-In escalation of Ethiopia war, Tigray leader says his
forces fired rockets at Eritrea ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>