Death toll from Sri Lanka mortar strike on hospital expected to exceed 50

A MORTAR shell struck the only functioning medical facility in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone yesterday, throwing bloody bodies into the dirt outside and killing 49 people, a government health official said. It was the second time this month the hospital was hit.

The attack on the makeshift hospital’s admissions ward – little more than a corrugated tin roof with blue tarp walls – also wounded 50 people. It came after a weekend of heavy shelling that killed hundreds of civilians trapped in the tiny war zone. The military denied shelling the coastal strip under rebel control, which is packed with an estimated 50,000 civilians.

But in Geneva, the top UN humanitarian official said there was evidence the government was using heaving weapons, despite its pledge to cease artillery attacks and airstrikes.

Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah said the mortar shell hit the admissions ward yesterday morning. The death toll was expected to rise, he said.

Shells were still hitting the area hours later, including one that landed about 140 metres from the hospital, Varatharajah said.

Just outside the admissions ward, bodies were strewn about in the dirt while health workers hooked up the wounded to IV lines, according to photographs taken after the attack. Later, nearly two dozen dead bodies were lined up in rows in a sandy courtyard.

Other photographs showed civilians fleeing the area. One man running away was carrying a child with a bandaged head.

Two hospital officials confirmed the attack and said a hospital administrator was among those killed.

Varatharajah and the hospital workers declined to say who had fired the shells.

Rebel spokesman Seevaratnam Puleedevan blamed the attack on the government and said civilians were fleeing in all directions inside the war zone, seeking safety.

“There’s no place to seek shelter or protect themselves,” he said.

The UN’s humanitarian coordinator said the government has continued to use heavy weapons, though he did not say who was responsible for yesterday’s attack.

“The government have said they are not using heavy weapons, but the evidence suggests that they are continuing to do so, at least to some extent, and that’s obviously contributing to the dreadful casualty figures that we’ve seen,” said John Holmes. He also accused the rebels of holding the civilians in the war zone as human shields.

Sri Lankan defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella denied the army had launched the attack and reiterated the government’s promise not to launch any airstrikes or artillery into the densely populated area.