Ethiopia’s military on Thursday confirmed it was responsible for a deadly airstrike on a busy marketplace in the country’s Tigray region that locals say killed dozens of civilians, but the military insisted that only combatants were targeted.

Bodies were still being pulled from the rubble and dozens of survivors were still arriving at regional hospitals with shrapnel and blunt trauma wounds two days after the airstrike, a doctor in the regional capital, Mekele, told The Associated Press. The doctor, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

A military spokesman, Col. Getnet Adane, told journalists that fighters supporting the Tigray region’s former leaders had assembled to celebrate Martyrs’ Day on Tuesday when the airstrike occurred.

“The Ethiopian air force uses the latest technology, so it conducted a precision strike that was successful,” he said. He didn’t comment when reached for further details.