Tigers accuse Lanka of bombing civilians

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels yesterday accused government forces of setting off a roadside bomb and killing two civilians inside guerrilla-held territory.
A man and a child died when their motorcycle was caught up in the bomb attack at Nedunkerni in the vast Wanni region on Thursday evening, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement.
"A farmer and a boy were killed in a claymore attack by the Sri Lanka army in Olumadhu in Nedunkerni on Thursday," the statement said, adding that most of the residents of Nedunkerni were displaced as a result of ongoing fighting.
The military routinely denies that it carries out attacks against civilians inside Tamil Tiger-controlled areas.
The Tiger statement came a day after Sri Lanka appealed to minority ethnic Tamil civilians living in rebel-held towns to move to areas under government control.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said the military had cleared a route for people fleeing the island's embattled north, where troops are advancing on the rebel capital of Kilinochchi, 330km north of Colombo.
UN aid agencies say nearly 135,000 people have been driven from their homes due to fierce fighting in the past two months.
Sri Lankan troops have been pushing deeper into rebel-held territory as they try to dismantle the LTTE's northern stronghold. They ejected the guerrillas from the east of the island in July 2007.
Tens of thousands have died on both sides since the LTTE launched a separatist campaign in 1972 for a homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east.