The peace agency of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels said on Saturday that at least 141 ethnic Tamil civilians have been killed by government bombs and shelling since August 8, in what it called the deadliest period since a 2002 ceasefire was signed.
The Peace Secretariat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said the civilians were killed in air-force strikes and shelling in the north and east, where fighting between the two sides has intensified in recent weeks.
The list of civilian casualties carried on its website included 15 Tamils killed in an air strike on the St Philip Neri church in Allaipiddy, in northern Jaffna Peninsula, and 55 killed in an air strike on a school camp deep inside rebel territory in north-eastern Mullaitivu.
It said the total did not include 17 workers for the international aid group Action against Hunger who were shot dead, execution-style, in the eastern district of Trincomalee on August 5.
The figures could not be independently confirmed, although several aid agencies contacted by The Associated Press said the figures were in line with information received from aid workers on the ground. The agencies asked not to be identified in order not to affect adversely their ongoing projects in the region.
European ceasefire monitors overseeing the four-year-old truce said they had no way of confirming the numbers as security concerns prevented their staff from reaching conflict areas in the north and east.
Government officials were not immediately available for comment, although they maintain that military strikes only target rebel bases. Military officials deny an air strike on August 15 hit a school camp and insists that the dead were children recruited by the rebels as soldiers.
Tamil Tigers have been battling for more than 20 years to carve out a separate state for the country’s 3,2-million minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east.
The peace secretariat is the rebels’ coordinating agency for peace talks with the government. — Sapa-AP