Sri Lanka jets bomb Tigers for second day, kill 5
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's air force bombed Tamil Tiger targets near the rebels' northern stronghold and in the island's northwest on Thursday, the military said, the second consecutive day of air raids in the wake of failed peace talks.
The Tigers said the air force dropped four shells near a hospital around 3 km (2 miles) from the rebels' political offices in their northern stronghold of Kilinochchi, destroying a house and killing its five civilian occupants.
Nordic truce monitors confirmed the site of the bombing, which was just 2.5 km from their own offices and close to the hospital. It was the closest that air force bombs have fallen to the rebel nerve center since a 2002 ceasefire.
"The house was smashed. A mother, a father, two children and a grandmother were all killed," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from Kilinochchi.
"Fragments flew as far as a hospital 500 metres away and smashed windows. Patients fled -- one woman was in labor and you could see her trail of blood as far as the road," he added. "This is state terrorism."
The military said it had targeted two Tiger military targets it viewed as threats to national security.
"We have taken two targets. One is a Sea Tiger base in Mannar (in the northwest), and the other is a military training camp 10 km southeast of Kilinochchi," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.
The air raids came as the two sides continued artillery duels in the north and east for a fourth day. On Wednesday jets pounded the restive eastern district of Batticaloa. Continued...
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'State terrorism' -BBC
The Sri Lankan air force has bombed targets in Tamil Tiger-held areas in the north and north-west for a second day, military and rebel officials say.
The rebels say that five civilians were killed in the town of Kilinochchi.
But the army says the planes were attacking two military targets viewed as "threats to national security".
The air raids are the first since weekend peace talks broke down on the issue of the main road linking Jaffna with the rest of the country.
Both sides accuse each other of restarting the fighting.
The Tamil Tigers say that four bombs landed near a hospital about 3km (two miles) from the rebels' political offices in Kilinochchi, destroying a house and killing its five civilian occupants.
'State terrorism'
"The house was smashed. A mother, a father, two children and a grandmother were all killed," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan told the Associated Press news agency from Kilinochchi.
"Fragments flew as far as a hospital 500 metres away and smashed windows. Patients fled - one woman was in labour and you could see her trail of blood as far as the road.
"This is state terrorism."
But the military insists it was attacking legitimate targets.
"We have taken two targets. One is a Sea Tiger base in Mannar [in the north-west], and the other is a military training camp 10km south-east of Kilinochchi," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.
The air raids came as the two sides continued artillery exchanges in the north and east for a fourth day.
On Wednesday jets pounded the restive eastern district of Batticaloa.
"The situation is discouraging and the talks in Geneva did not have any positive impact on the ground situation," Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir told AP.
The violence has claimed more than 3,000 lives since the end of last year, the government says, although the rebels dispute the number of their fighters killed.
Despite the bloodshed, both sides maintain that they are committed to a 2002 ceasefire which now exists only in name.
At least 65,000 people have been killed since the rebels began their fight more than 20 years ago for a homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east.
The rebels say Tamils have been discriminated against by the island's majority Sinhalese community.
-bbc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6109590.stm
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