[BBC]

A suicide bombing in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, has killed at least five members of the paramilitary civil defence force, military officials said. The bomber hit a checkpoint near a market in Wattala, a suburb of Colombo, the officials said. No group has claimed to have carried out the attack, but it follows heavy fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and the army in the north of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan navy says it has sunk a boat carrying supplies to the rebels.

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[AFP]

Thousands of Tamils fleeing heavy fighting in the north of Sri Lanka are trapped by the government and being denied basic provisions, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. People who have fled areas under control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels to seek safety in government-controlled regions are detained in army-run camps, the New York-based rights group said in a report. “Civilians are trapped in a war zone with limited aid because the government ordered the U.N. and other aid workers out,” HRW’s Asia director Brad Adams said.

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[ UN News Centre ]

United Nations relief officials are continuing to assist authorities in the conflict-wracked north of Sri Lanka respond to flooding that has displaced more than 70,000 people and affected 300,000 others. A UN inter-agency assessment of civilian needs in Northern province’s Jaffna district — the district hardest hit by the floods — has been carried out, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today.

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