Ethiopia claims that its forces have killed more than 5 600 Tigray rebels in the conflict in the north of the country.
According to the BBC, the statement from a senior officer in the Ethiopian forces, Lt General Bacha Debele, gave no timescale for the casualties, but correspondents say they may be from recent battles.
The general said a further 2 300 rebels had been injured, and 2 000 captured.
The United Nations said the 10-month conflict in Tigray province had left millions of civilians facing starvation.
Debele accused the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of trying to break up Ethiopia, as the group made incursions into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions.
He said that one TPLF division had tried to gain control of Humera on the border between Tigray and Amhara, but had been ‘completely decimated’.
The TPLF had yet to respond to the claims, the BBC said.
The BBC’s Ethiopian correspondent, Kalkidan Yibeltal, reported that key areas within Afar and Amhara, including the historic town of Lalibela (home of the Unesco world-heritage rock-hewn churches), remained under TPLF control.
Meanwhile, the UN has accused the Ethiopian government of effectively blockading aid supplies to Tigray, warning that millions of lives were being put at risk.
The UN estimates that 5.2 million people need urgent assistance if ‘the world’s worst famine situation in decades’ is to be averted.