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.
Updated at 8.30pm
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.
"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.
LTTE Sea Tiger vehicles assisted in the transport of the dead civilians and injured to Vaharai hospital where relatives identified their family members, the Tigers said.
Kathiraveli was subjected to severe economic blockade by the Sri Lankan military and all sorts of essential items are in short supply.
The hospital too is badly resourced and is struggling to cope with the large number of injured without medicines and bandages, the Tigers said.
The Vaharai hospital was already struggling with patients injured in the shelling over the past few days.
"The mindless and cruel attack on a helpless refugee population which has already been subjected to blockades of all sorts of essential items is difficult to understand," the Tigers said.
Meanwhile, the government said it was ready to open an alternate ferry route to the Jaffna peninsula where some half a million Tamil civilians are living under virtual siege since August.
However, the Tigers said the proposed alternate route was not suitable and that even as truce monitors were inspecting it today, the military fired three mortar bombs into the area scaring them off.
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