Ethiopia’s Tigray leader confirms firing missiles at Eritrea

The leader of Ethiopia’s Tigray region has confirmed firing missiles at neighboring Eritrea’s capital, and vowed to carry out more.

The confirmation marks a huge escalation as the deadly fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region now spills across an international border.

"Those who attack Tigray will not just attack and return home. We will retaliate while they are here," said Debretsion Gebremichael, in a televised interview.

In a separate phone interview with the Associated Press, Gebremichael would not say how many missiles were fired at the city of Asmara on Saturday but said it was the only city in Eritrea that was targeted.

The brewing civil war in Ethiopia between a regional government that once dominated the country's ruling coalition, and a Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister whose sweeping reforms marginalized the Tigray region's power, could fracture a key U.S. security ally and destabilize the strategic Horn of Africa, with the potential to send scores of thousands of refugees into Sudan.

At least three rockets appeared to be aimed at the airport in Asmara, hours after the Tigray regional government warned it might attack.

It accuses Eritrea of attacking at the invitation of Ethiopia’s government after the conflict in the Tigray region erupted on November 4 with an attack by regional forces on a federal military base there.