Sri Lanka issued a stark warning to civilians trapped in fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels Monday, even as international humanitarian aid agencies called for increased access to the "nightmarish situation" where government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in battle. The warning and the plea came a day after artillery shells slammed into a crowded hospital in the northeast combat zone, where civilians - including a growing number of children - are being treated.
A government statement said the fight against the cornered Tigers was at "the decisive stage" and that it could not guarantee the security of tens of thousands of non-combatants living outside a designated "safety zone" in rebel-held territory. "The government calls on all civilians to enter the demarcated 'safety zone' as soon as possible," the statement said, adding, "The government cannot be responsible for the safety and security of civilians still living among LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) terrorists.”
A year-long military offensive has pushed the once-powerful LTTE back into 300-square kilometre (110-square mile) jungle area on the island's northeast coast.
The United Nations says up to 250,000 non-combatants are trapped in the area. The Sri Lankan government says the figure is closer to 120,000. Aid agencies say hundreds of civilians may already have been killed in the crossfire and scores more injured, including children as young as 10 days old.
A hospital in the area with 500 patients, took direct hits in two separate shelling incidents on Sunday, aid agencies and medical workers said.
At least nine patients were killed and 20 injured the Red Cross said. "We don't fire shells on that area. There is no requirement for us to fire into there ... it must be LTTE shells as they are desperately firing," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, saying it was carried out by the rebels in a bid to "discredit" the military.
A pro-rebel www.tamilnet.com website said the shells had been fired by the Sri Lankan military.
"Army shelled Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital killing nine civilians, including patients and their family members in the ward. More than 15 civilians were injured," the website said
"We're shocked that the hospital was hit, and this for the second time in recent weeks," said Paul Castella, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Colombo.
The ICRC did not say which side was responsible for the shelling,
With the Tigers on the brink of defeat, the government has rejected international calls for a ceasefire, saying it intends to wipe out the rebel force and finally end Asia's longest-running ethnic conflict.
Tiger rebels took up arms in their fight for a separate Tamil homeland in 1972.
There was heavy fighting in the narrow strip of land where the rebels have been cornered, the defence ministry said, with war planes bombing suspected Tiger positions.
The ministry said a total of 46 Tiger rebels were killed in separate clashes, but did not say if security forces suffered any casualties.
The government has accused the Tigers of using civilians as a human shield and preventing them from moving into the safety zone on the edge of the rebel-held territory.
The Tigers insist the non-combatants are free to leave, but say they are scared of moving to areas under military control.
T. Varatharajah, the regional director of health services stationed in the damaged hospital, said the shells had hit the staff quarters, the female ward, the mortuary and the kitchen. "It's a very tense situation now," Varatharajah said by telephone. "There is no proper power or water supply and staff are spending their time in the bunkers in between treating patients."
The doctor said many patients' relatives were also staying in the hospital grounds, bringing the number of people inside the compound to around 1,000.
"Most of the staff have also moved in with their families," he added.
The UN arranged an evacuation of some 350 wounded people and their relatives from the combat zone last week and negotiations are underway for the transfer of a further 250 patients from the hospital.
The government has blocked any independent media access to the conflict area and to the camps housing those displaced civilians who have managed to flee the fighting. Sarah Crowe of UNICEF said aid from the UN is getting into the war zone only every few days.
Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared Monday the army was on the verge of crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels, even as images from the war zone showing scores of dead and wounded civilians surfaced.
The photographs and video footage, which were handed to The Associated Press, highlight the plight of some 250,000 civilians trapped in the shrinking war zone in the Mullaittivu district where the Tamil Tigers have been boxed in by advancing troops.
Journalists have been barred from travelling to the area, but video footage and photographs from the war zone over the past week show what appear to be scores of civilians killed or injured in artillery attacks.
The images were provided by independent observers in the region, who did not wish to be identified because they feared government retaliation.
In recent months, the army has wrested all major towns once controlled by the Tigers, who are now defending a 115-square-mile (300-square-kilometer) pocket.
``The strongholds of terror once believed to be invincible ... have fallen in rapid succession, bringing the final elimination of terror from our motherland and the dawn of true freedom to all our people well within our reach,' President Rajapaksa said in a message to mark the 61st Independence Day that will be celebrated Wednesday.
It is the first time the Sri Lankan government has come this close to a military solution to Asia's longest-running civil war, centered over demands for a separate Tamil state in the north and the east.
However, as the military pressed ahead, civilians continued to suffer in the north.
One photo from the town of Udakattu, inside a government-declared ``safe zone,' showed family members apparently killed in their sleep by artillery on January 23. The mother and father lay dead on mats on the floor, still cradling their two children between them.
Video footage showed a hospital in the war zone packed with severely injured people. Many were forced to lie on mats underneath beds, because of overcrowding.
Young boys and girls had legs amputated, an elderly woman missing her right leg was forced to lie on a mat on the floor. A small boy with a head wound had his left eye sealed shut. A teenage boy with no arms cried in despair, while an elderly man nearby lay on a bed with one leg amputated above the knee and the other below it.