ETHIOPIA has claimed that rebellious forces from the Tigray region had been defeated in the adjacent Afar region and had withdrawn, but the Tigrayan forces said they had merely shifted troops to neighbouring Amhara for an offensive there. "The TPLF force has left Afar (region)," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dina Mufti told reporters at a news conference in Addis Ababa. "According to military information, they were defeated and they left," he said. Tigrayan spokesperson Getachew Reda, speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location, said the Ethiopian authorities had only now realised Tigrayan forces had withdrawn. "We were not…