Fighters from Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region have seized control of a UN World Heritage Site in a neighboring region. Lalibela is home to 11 medieval monolithic churches that were carved out of rock some 900 years ago. The churches are a holy site for millions of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Some residents fled the town, located in Ethiopia's Amhara region, as the Tigrayan fighters arrived, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The United States has called on the fighters to "protect this cultural heritage," State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday. The Ethiopian government on Friday threatened that it would be forced to respond to Tigrayan forces if they continue to expand into neighboring regions, a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. "The action of the irresponsible group is testing the Federal Government's patience and pushing it to change its defensive mood which has been taken for the sake of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire," 

The statement added that the Ethiopian government is "being pushed to mobilize and deploy the entire defensive capability of the state if its humanitarian overtures for a peaceful resolution of the conflict remain unreciprocated," and accused Tigrayan fighters of launching "new attacks in the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, which left more than 300,000 people displaced and thousands dead." The war took a major turn when Tigrayan fighters recaptured their regional capital of Mekelle from Ethiopian forces in June, then rejected a last-minute ceasefire offer from the central government.

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