[ AFP ]

The government is “deeply concerned” by the ongoing unrest in northeast Sri Lanka, where Sri Lanka troops and Tamil rebels are locked in a fierce conflict, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said. “Recent developments underline the urgent need for progress toward a meaningful and durable political solution,” said Cannon. After months of intense battles, government security forces have cornered the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, and according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding. Some 250,000 people are trapped and hundreds have been reported killed, said the ICRC.

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[AP]

The Sri Lankan military shelled a village and a makeshift hospital inside a government-declared “safe zone” for civilians in the north Thursday, killing at least 30 people and wounding scores, local health officials said. The military denied hitting the hospital and said it was taking precautions to protect civilians. Health officials said that at least 67 civilians have been killed in shelling since Tuesday. With the government’s offensive against the Tamil Tigers escalating, international aid groups are increasingly concerned about the safety of the hundreds of thousands of civilians reportedly living inside the shrinking pocket of rebel-held territory in northeast Sri Lanka.

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