UN: Cluster bombs hit hospital in Sri Lanka

By pearlaction | February 4, 2009 |

[AP] Cluster bombs struck the last functioning hospital in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone Wednesday, the U.N. said, as the country’s president declared that the military has nearly crushed a 25-year Tamil rebellion for a separate homeland. U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said 15 U.N. staffers and 81 family members are trapped in the Puthukkudiyiruppu area,…

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Last hospital in Sri Lanka war zone evacuated

By pearlaction | February 3, 2009 |

[ AP ] Patients are fleeing a hospital that was hit four times by artillery shells in the war between the Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces in northern Sri Lanka this week, the Red Cross said Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the military said it had captured the rebels’ seventh and final airstrip, effectively grounding their…

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Images show many dead, wounded in Sri Lanka war

By pearlaction | February 2, 2009 |

[AP] Rare images of suffering civilians trapped in Sri Lanka’s war zone emerged Monday: Dead parents still cradling their children. A teenage boy with no arms crying in despair. A severely crowded hospital with many patients lying on mats under already full beds. The photographs and video footage of scores of dead and wounded, which…

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Aid groups: Sri Lanka situation ‘nightmarish’

By pearlaction | February 2, 2009 |

[CNN] International humanitarian aid agencies called Monday for increased access to the “nightmarish situation” in northern Sri Lanka, where government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in battle. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped by the fighting. The plea came as artillery shells slammed into a hospital in the northern district…

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