Ethiopian news agency says 10,000 people 'destroyed' in war

Ethiopian refugees fleeing from the ongoing fighting in Tigray region, queue for water, at the Fashaga camp, on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in Kassala state

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A news agency in Ethiopia's Amhara region said on Wednesday that more than 10,000 Tigrayan troops had been "destroyed" during a three-week conflict raging in the mountainous north.

The report by the regional government-run AMMA agency in Amhara, where authorities back Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal forces, could not be verified and nor was there any immediate response from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Phone and internet connections to Tigray are down and access to the area is strictly controlled, meaning all sides' statements are hard to verify.

(Reporting by Addis Ababa newsroom; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Alex Richardson)