Ethiopia's military launched air strikes on the capital of the war-battered Tigray region on Monday, a dramatic escalation in the year-long conflict.
The government initially dismissed reports about the bombardments on Mekele as an "absolute lie" but state media later confirmed the air force had struck Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) targets.
A senior official at Tigray's largest hospital said three people had been killed, including two children.
They were the first air raids on Mekele since the early stages of the war in northern Ethiopia that has killed untold numbers of people and triggered a deep humanitarian crisis.
The bombardments - reported by residents, humanitarian officials and diplomats - came as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government appeared to be pressing a new offensive against the TPLF, which dominated national politics for almost three decades before he took power in 2018.
The Ethiopian Press Agency said the raids hit media and communications equipment used by the TPLF, adding that "measures to prevent civilian casualties during the air strikes were done successfully".
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks behind bulletproof glass at his inauguration ceremony earlier in October Source: AP
Both the United Nations and the United States voiced alarm about the escalating violence.
One strike, the sources said, occurred near a cement factory on the outskirts of Mekele, the city held by the TPLF since it was recaptured from government forces in June.
The second hit the city centre near the Planet Hotel, often used by top officials from the TPLF, the region's former ruling party.
'Crying wolf'
A government spokesman initially branded the reports as lies concocted by the TPLF "to misguide the international community" and apply pressure on Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa.
"There is no reason, or no plan, to strike civilians in Mekele, which is a part of Ethiopia, and home to our own citizens. This is absolute lie," Legesse Tulu, head of the Government Communication Service, told the AFP news agency.
Ethiopia's foreign ministry accused the TPLF of "crying wolf" and trying to cover up alleged attacks on civilians in Amhara and Afar, the regions neighbouring Tigray where the fighting has spread.
Dr Hayelom Kebede, research director at Mekele's Ayder Referral Hospital, told AFP that "many casualties" were coming to the facility and that three people - including two children - had been killed.
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said on Twitter that government forces were "losing big" and the aerial assaults were designed to inflict civilian casualties as revenge, noting that Monday was market day in Mekele.
UN chief Antonio Guterres was "deeply concerned" about the escalation of the conflict and called for all sides to avoid targeting civilians and to stop fighting, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price issued a similar entreaty.
"We urge all parties to end hostilities immediately and for the Ethiopian government and the TPLF ... to enter into negotiations without preconditions toward a sustainable ceasefire.”
Since the fighting first erupted in November, nearly two million people have been displaced, and there have been many reports of atrocities including massacres and mass rape.
The war has also soured relations between Ethiopia and Western powers, including the United States, long a crucial ally but which has now threatened sanctions.
