Lanka troops capture another Tiger village

Sri Lankan security forces seized another village from Tamil Tiger rebels, the government said yesterday, as international concern mounted about the plight of civilians caught in the shrinking war zone.
Government forces established control over the village of Ampalavanpokkanai in the district of Mullaittivu on Thursday afternoon following heavy fighting, the defence ministry said.
The bodies of seven guerrillas were recovered, but a search operation was still underway. The ministry did not say if troops suffered any casualties.
In the same area, soldiers found diving equipment and underwater "scooters" used by suicide bombers, the ministry said.
Government forces are keeping up a major offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas who have been hemmed into a narrow strip of coastal jungle area in Mullaittivu.
The fighting has stoked concern about tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the conflict zone.
The LTTE in a statement Friday accused the military of killing 34 civilians in shelling on Thursday. Sri Lanka's military has denied targeting civilians.
Independent verification of claims is impossible as authorities have restricted access to the region by relief agencies, diplomats and journalists.
There was no immediate comment from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has a limited presence in the area. However, the ICRC said earlier this month that "hundreds" of civilians had been killed in crossfire.
Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Sri Lankan government forces of "slaughtering" civilians with indiscriminate shelling in its effort to eradicate Tiger rebels.
In a report issued after a covert, two-week fact-finding mission in northern Sri Lanka, the group also said civilians who escape rebel-held areas are herded into squalid, military-run internment camps and allowed no free movement.
"Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there," said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch.
"This 'war' against civilians must stop," he added.
The Sri Lankan government says the Tigers are using the civilians as shields, while the rebels say they are protecting them.
The top UN envoy for humanitarian issues, John Holmes, began a three-day visit to Sri Lanka on Thursday and urged both sides to desist from harming civilians.
Holmes also called for better access for relief workers to deliver services and supplies to war-affected people in the island's north.
The government has barred rights monitors from the war zone and severely curbed the movement of local and international workers, arguing the restrictions were to ensure their security.
Human Rights Watch accused the LTTE of preventing civilians from leaving the war zone and subjecting those in areas under its control -- including children -- to conscription and forced labour on the battlefield.
"With each battlefield defeat, the Tamil Tigers appear to be treating Tamil civilians with increased brutality," said Ross.