The cornered Tamil Tigers on Sunday accused Sri Lanka of killing hundreds in an artillery barrage, which the military said the guerrillas had fired off themselves to win sympathy for a truce to stave off defeat. The reported attack is the latest in a series of accusations and counter-accusations about who is harming civilians, tens of thousands of whom are trapped inside the less than 5 square km (2 sq miles) of battlefield left in Asia's longest modern war. The civilian presence has prompted Western governments to press Sri Lanka for a truce, which it ruled out on the grounds the Tigers have a history of using them to rearm and refused calls to let the people go during two fighting pauses this year. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), surrounded by 50,000 soldiers and on the verge of conventional defeat, increasingly have urged external intervention to aid civilians -- which the UN say they are holding as a human shield. An overnight artillery barrage in Sri Lanka's northern war zone killed at least 257 civilians, a government doctor said Sunday, calling it the bloodiest day he had seen in the government's offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. Dr. V Shanmugarajah said many more were likely killed in the attack, but they were buried where they fell instead of being brought to the makeshift hospital where he works in the war zone.Shanmugarajah described seeing shells fly through the air, with some falling close to the hospital, sending many diving into bunkers for safety. The rebel-linked TamilNet Web site said 2,000 civilians were feared killed and blamed the attack on Sri Lankan forces _ a charge the military denied. The hospital struggled to cope with the 814 wounded civilians brought to the facility, Shanmugarajah said.
