Colombo's shelling carnage of flood-hit civilians, 25 children killed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 March 2009, 02:56 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intensified indiscriminate shelling on the 'safe zone' throughout Monday, continuing into Tuesday morning to the time of this reporting, killing 74 civilians and injuring more than 100, TamilNet correspondent reported from Vanni. 25 of the victims killed were children. "The inhuman shelling deliberately targeted all the areas of the 'safe zone' where civilians are already victims of flood and a mini-cyclone that hit them Monday." All lethal ammunitions such as artillery-fired cluster shells, fire-shells and Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) shells were used in the SLA attack.

High casualties were reported in Ampalavanpokka'nai.

56 civilians were killed on Monday. 18 of them were children. 12 civilians including 4 children were slain in Ampalavanpokka'nai, 11 were killed and 3 of them were children in Pachchaip-pulmoaddai. 5 of the 9 civilians slain in Valaignarmadam and 3 of the 7 killed in Maaththa'lan were children. 2 of the 9 killed at Iraddaivaaykkaal were children and one of the 8 reported killed in Mu'l'livaaykkaal was a child.

Shelling continued Tuesday morning from 2:30 a.m. So far, 18 civilians were reported killed, 9 in Ampalavanpokka'nai, 4 in Pachchaip-pulmoaddai, 3 at Valaignarmadam and 2 in Mu'l'livaaykkaal. The casualty figure is expected to rise, according to local NGO workers helping the displaced.

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