[BBC]

Sri Lanka has rejected a fresh appeal by the UN to give civilians more time to leave a safe zone in the north-east, the defence secretary says. Only a few hundred civilians used the two-day unilateral government truce with Tamil Tiger rebels to escape. Between 50,000 and 100,000 civilians are still thought to be trapped in the zone - about 20 sq km (8 sq miles) of coastal area in Mullaitivu district.

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[OneWorld.net]

In a designated safe zone in northern Sri Lanka, weekend fighting has put civilians back in the war zone. A new “safe zone” has provided some respite for tens of thousands of local residents, reports the United Nations, but that area also experienced some fighting in the past several days. “The Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should take immediate steps to allow thousands of civilians trapped in a shrinking conflict zone safe passage and to ensure that they receive desperately needed humanitarian aid,” says international rights monitor Human Rights Watch.

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[CBC News]

At least 38 civilians have been killed and 140 others wounded in government artillery attacks and air raids on a tiny rebel-controlled territory in Sri Lanka, a health official says. The attack was carried out in an area that included a government designated “no-fire zone,” said Dr. Thurairaja Varatharaja, who works in the embattled region. He said 13 members of an extended family were killed early Wednesday when artillery hit their home in Idaikkadu village.

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[ AP ]

Dozens of U.N. workers and their relatives spent a terrifying night huddling in hastily built bunkers as artillery fire pounded a civilian “safe zone” in Sri Lanka’s war-wracked north, according to an internal U.N. memo. The memo, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, said the artillery shells killed nine civilians in a nearby bunker and were apparently fired by government forces. The military denied the charge and President Mahinda Rajapaksa renewed the government’s pledge not to launch attacks in the refuge as it fought to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels and end the country’s 25-year-old civil war.

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[ The Independent ]

Dozens of civilians in Sri Lanka are feared dead or wounded after a so-called “safe zone” set aside for refugees came under artillery fire. It is believed that 250,000 people have become caught up in the end-game of the island’s bitter civil war as the military continues to drive the Tamil Tigers into an ever-diminishing area of jungle following the capture of Mullaittivu, the rebels’ last major town, at the weekend. Humanitarian convoys, on which the civilians depend, have not been able to reach them for almost two weeks.

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[CNN]

Mounting violence between rebel fighters and government troops along northern Sri Lanka has prompted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call for the safety of civilians as humanitarian groups try to provide aid to some 250,000 people trapped in the region. “The secretary-general is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of civilians caught in intensified fighting in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka,” a spokesman for Ban said in a statement Monday. Ban called on the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers to respect “no-fire zones” and civilians areas, including schools, hospitals and humanitarian posts. He also asked both sides to allow the 250,000 civilians trapped in the fighting to move to “safe areas.”

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[BBC]

The UN in Sri Lanka says dozens of civilians have been killed or injured in fighting between troops and rebels in the north-east in the past few days.

Senior UN spokesman Gordon Weiss told the BBC shells exploded very close to civilian areas in Mullaitivu district.

Mr Weiss said: “The shells landed on the A35 road inside the no-fire zone declared by the army. Some shells landed close to a local UN office.

“Many civilians have been killed or injured. Our staff members witnessed the death of civilians. But we cannot determine where the fire came from.”

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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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[Al Jazeera]

At least 67 civilians have been killed as Sri Lankan government troops push further into rebel Tamil Tiger territory, according to local health workers. Doctors claim around 30 people were killed on Thursday alone, after soldiers shelled a village and makeshift hospital in a government-declared “safe zone” on the edge of rebel-held territory in the north of the island. Kandasamy Tharmakulasingham, a local health official, said that shells hit a school doubling as a hospital on Thursday, one day after the government dropped leaflets across the area assuring civilians they were safe from attack.

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