Sri Lanka war zone hospital shelled, killing 50: official

At least 50 civilians were killed on Wednesday in an artillery attack on a hospital in northern Sri Lanka's war zone, a government health official was quoted as saying, despite the Sri Lankan military's insistance it has ceased all use of heavy weaponry in its offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Dr. Thurairaja Varatharajah, the top government health official in the conflict zone, said the attack took place on Wednesday afternoon when two shells slammed into the facility, which features open-air treatment areas and tarpaulins to shelter patients. 

A doctor at the facility, Dr. V. Shanmugarajah, earlier told The Associated Press that at least 15 people were killed and 40 others wounded by two shells hitting an administrative office and a ward filled with patients wounded in previous shelling attacks.

It was the second deadly attack on the hospital in as many days. The previous attack killed 49 patients and bystanders, Shanmugarajah said.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said one of its local workers and his mother were killed Wednesday by shelling inside the conflict zone.

The Red Cross is the only agency working in the slim coastal strip of land where rebel fighters are pinned down after a recent government offensive in the South Asian nation's bloody 25-year civil war.

Casualty reports from the war zone are almost impossible to verify as the government has barred independent journalists from entering the area. 

The government has come under heavy international criticism for the large civilian toll in its offensive against the Tamil Tigers.

Aid groups say the recent fighting has created a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of refugees flee the violence.

War crimes alleged

The rebel group has accused the military of deliberately firing on civilians, while the government says the Tamil Tigers are using civilians as human shields.

The military has denied firing heavy weapons in recent weeks as it pushes to finish off the rebels, though human rights groups and international officials say the government has continued artillery attacks.

Rebel spokesman Seevaratnam Puleedevan said the shelling also hit a home for mentally handicapped women, killing 38 and wounding more than 40. The health officials said they were not able to confirm that attack.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called the conflict zone "as close to hell as you can get," and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed alarm at the civilian casualties.

The U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said satellite images of the war zone along with witness accounts indicated the government had continued shelling the area, despite its repeated denials.

The Tamil Tigers were banned in Canada as a terrorist group in 2006 for their use of child soldiers and suicide bombers during the civil war, which has killed an estimated 70,000 people.