[CNN]
International humanitarian aid agencies called Monday for increased access to the “nightmarish situation” in northern Sri Lanka, where government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in battle. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped by the fighting. The plea came as artillery shells slammed into a hospital in the northern district of Mullaittivu, where civilians — including a growing number of children — are being treated. “We don’t know how many lives exactly, but there was a third strike on the hospital around about midnight,” said Gordon Weiss, a U.N. spokesman who talked to a member of the U.N. staff at the hospital early Monday.
