Sri Lankan health officials say at least 30 people were killed Thursday when the military shelled a village and a makeshift hospital in the country's north. The officials say the shelling occurred within a government-declared safe zone. They say shelling in the area has killed a total of at least 66 civilians since Tuesday.
The military has denied reports accusing it of firing into the safe zone.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels also faced allegations of wrongdoing Thursday, with the United Nations accusing them of blocking UN staff and their families from leaving rebel-controlled areas in the north.
Sri Lanka's military has advanced into the rebels' strongholds in recent weeks. Thrusday the military said it captured a building in the Mullaittivu district that appeared to be the Tigers' main operations center.
The military has moved further into rebel territory after a series of victories, including the capture of the rebels' de-facto capital, Kilinochchi, and the seizure of the strategic Elephant Pass.
Journalists are barred from the war zone, making it difficult to confirm reports from the two sides of the conflict.
Closer home in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi says he would uld move an official resolution in the state Assembly on Friday making a "final appeal" to the Centre to "save the Tamil race from annihilation in Sri Lanka."
Karunanidhi, a constituent of the ruling-UPA at the center, has repeatedly upped dissent on the Lankan Tamil issue, but stopped short of initiating any meaningful masures.
While criticising Karunanidhi for slackening over the issue, opposition parties in the state term his antics as attempts to “diversify political liabilities” ahead of crucial parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting since 1983 to establish an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils, who they say face second-class treatment by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict.
The military has denied reports accusing it of firing into the safe zone.
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels also faced allegations of wrongdoing Thursday, with the United Nations accusing them of blocking UN staff and their families from leaving rebel-controlled areas in the north.
Sri Lanka's military has advanced into the rebels' strongholds in recent weeks. Thrusday the military said it captured a building in the Mullaittivu district that appeared to be the Tigers' main operations center.
The military has moved further into rebel territory after a series of victories, including the capture of the rebels' de-facto capital, Kilinochchi, and the seizure of the strategic Elephant Pass.
Journalists are barred from the war zone, making it difficult to confirm reports from the two sides of the conflict.
Closer home in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi says he would uld move an official resolution in the state Assembly on Friday making a "final appeal" to the Centre to "save the Tamil race from annihilation in Sri Lanka."
Karunanidhi, a constituent of the ruling-UPA at the center, has repeatedly upped dissent on the Lankan Tamil issue, but stopped short of initiating any meaningful masures.
While criticising Karunanidhi for slackening over the issue, opposition parties in the state term his antics as attempts to “diversify political liabilities” ahead of crucial parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting since 1983 to establish an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils, who they say face second-class treatment by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict.
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