Colombo: At least 65 civilians were killed and about 300 wounded in heavy shelling by government forces in eastern Sri lanka on Wednesday, the Tiger rebels said.
Rebel sources in the eastern district of Batticaloa said the civilians were killed when the military shelled a refugee camp in the area. They said 100 of the wounded were severely injured and had to be hospitalised.
The defence ministry denied killing civilians, but said troops had retaliated against an artillery strike by the rebels in the Kathiraveli area of the district of Batticaloa.
The ministry did not comment on rebel allegations that refugees had been hit, but accused the Tigers of using civilians as a human shield. "It was what the Tigers wanted to cause damages to the innocent Tamil civilians by provoking the army to retaliate for the Tigers' sporadic and indiscriminate shelling," the ministry said in a statement.
"The Tigers had been planning this situation since the beginning of this month by detaining the innocent civilians in those areas by force to be used as a human shield when the time arises," the defence ministry statement said. The Tigers said the attack was timed when the world attention was on Iraq and elections in the United States.
"Is it possible that the Sri Lankan military's intention was to teach the Tamils the lesson that they, the military, can kill refugees in such numbers, and no one can stop them," the Tigers said.
"The timing of the attack, when the world attention is focused on Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the US elections, must have also been selected to escape any international scrutiny of their methods," the Tigers said in a statement.
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