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| Sri Lanka |
| 50 killed in Sri Lankan hospital attack: doctor |
| 2009-05-14 |
| Shells hit the only hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people in the second such attack in two days, a doctor said, as a human rights group accused the government of breaking its pledge not to fire artillery into the tiny coastal strip. The military has denied firing any heavy weapons in recent weeks as it pushed to finish off the Tamil Tiger rebels, but Human Rights Watch (HRW) says both sides are using the estimated 50,000 civilians packed into the last rebel-held territory as "cannon fodder". The Red Cross said one of its workers was killed in the shelling on Wednesday. The Tamil Tigers are cornered in a two square-mile pocket of land. The military said it pressed ahead with its offensive into that strip on Wednesday, capturing one of the rebels' heavy guns and fending off a suicide attack launched by the group's naval wing. On Wednesday afternoon, the area around the hospital came under heavy shell attack, Dr V Shanmugarajah told The Associated Press by telephone -- the third time it has come under fire this month and just one day after the last attack. One shell landed in an administrative office of the hospital, while another hit a ward filled with patients already wounded by previous shelling, he said. Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, said the attack killed at least 50 people, including patients, relatives and a health aide, and wounded about 60 others. He said heavy shelling continued throughout the day. "We are unable to treat the people properly because a lot of aides have fled the hospital. We go into bunkers when there is shelling and try to treat them as much as we can when there is a lull," he said by telephone. More than 1,000 civilians -- many with amputations or chest wounds -- were waiting for treatment at the hospital when it was struck, and every 10 minutes or so another one or two died, according to a third hospital official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. Red cross: The International Committee of the Red Cross, unable to ferry out wounded and deliver aid by boat because of days of fighting, said one of their local staff was killed. "A 31-year-old local worker was killed this afternoon inside the conflict zone by shelling. His mother was also killed," ICRC spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne said. The ICRC is the only international aid agency working inside the war zone. Wijeratne did not say who fired the shells. |
| Posted by:Fred |