The United Nations said the killing of hundreds of ethnic Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka over the weekend is a “bloodbath”.

Facing imminent battlefield defeat, Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have declared a unilateral ceasefire and called on the government to halt its offensive to spare the tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting.

SRI LANKA’S rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire yesterday, but the government refused to halt its offensive into the last strip of land the insurgents hold despite concerns for tens of thousands of civilians trapped there.

Cluster bombs hit the last functioning hospital in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone where Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting a last-gasp battle for survival, the United Nations said today.

Three artillery barrages struck a hospital in Sri Lanka’s chaotic war zone, slamming into its paediatrics ward and its women’s wing and killing nine patients, the Red Cross said today.

The Taliban have threatened to execute any UN workers who use key equipment in their offices in Afghanistan, a move that has nearly shut down the remaining relief work being done in the country.