SCORES ALLEGEDLY MASSACRED BY TIGRAY RULERS

Scores and possibly hundreds of labourers were stabbed and hacked to death in Ethiopia's Tigray region, rights group Amnesty International said Thursday, as federal troops claimed major advances in their offensive against local forces.

Amnesty cited witnesses as blaming local rulers, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, for the killings, which it said took place two days ago.

Airstrikes and ground combat have killed hundreds, sent refugees flooding into Sudan and stirred Ethiopia's ethnic divisions.

With communications down and media barred, independent verification of the status of the conflict was impossible.