Tamil Tigers say military killed 60 civilians

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — Government forces bombarding Tamil Tiger rebels with artillery hit a school where scores of civilians had taken refuge from the fighting Wednesday, killing at least 60 Tamil civilians and wounding 150, a senior insurgent leader said.

Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said he was not aware of the casualties in Kithiraveli village in the rebel-held east. He accused the rebels of using civilians as human shields.

Later Wednesday, rebels killed a soldier and wounded two in an attack on a Sri Lankan military post in the northern area of Jaffna, officials said today.

A doctor attending the wounded from the school Wednesday said most had sustained broken bones and shrapnel wounds. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals.

“It was a big attack,” Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the senior rebel official, said by satellite phone.

All the dead and wounded were civilians and members of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, rebels said.

Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, a group of foreigners overseeing the 2002 cease-fire, has said 1,076 civilians have been killed in violence in Sri Lanka since early this year.

Helen Olafsdottir, a spokeswoman for the foreign cease-fire monitoring mission, said monitors counted 20 bodies Wednesday but were still investigating.

Rights group Amnesty International condemned the incident.

“It is appalling that the military should attack a camp for displaced people; these are civilians who have already been forced from their homes because of the conflict,” Amnesty’s Asia Pacific Director Purna Sen said.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils, citing discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.