Doctor: 50 Killed At Sri Lanka Hospital

Shells hit the only hospital in Sri Lanka's northern war zone Wednesday, killing at least 50 people in the second such attack in two days, a doctor said, as a human rights group accused the government of breaking its pledge not to fire artillery into the tiny coastal strip.

The military has denied firing any heavy weapons in recent weeks as it pushed to finish off the Tamil Tiger rebels, but Human Rights Watch says both sides are using the estimated 50,000 civilians packed into the last rebel-held territory as "cannon fodder." The Red Cross said one of its workers was killed in the shelling Wednesday.

The Tamil Tigers are cornered in a two square-mile pocket of land. The military said it pressed ahead with its offensive into that strip Wednesday, capturing one of the rebels' heavy guns and fending off a suicide attack launched by the group's naval wing.

At the White House Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama talked about the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka.

"I've been increasingly saddened by the desperate news in recent days," Mr. Obama said. "Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe. Now's the time, I believe, to put aside some of the political issues that are involved and to put the lives of the men and women and children who are innocently caught in the crossfire, to put them first. "

On Wednesday afternoon, the area around the hospital came under heavy shell attack, Dr. V. Shanmugarajah told The Associated Press by telephone - the third time it has come under fire this month and just one day after the last attack. One shell landed in an administrative office of the hospital, while another hit a ward filled with patients already wounded by previous shelling, he said.

Dr. Thurairaja Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, said the attack killed at least 50 people, including patients, relatives and a health aide, and wounded about 60 others.

He said heavy shelling continued throughout the day.

"We are unable to treat the people properly because a lot of aides have fled the hospital. We go into bunkers when there is shelling and try to treat them as much as we can when there is a lull," he said by telephone.

More than 1,000 civilians - many with amputations or chest wounds - were waiting for treatment at the hospital when it was struck, and every 10 minutes or so another one or two died, according to a third hospital official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by the government to speak to the media.

Overwhelmed doctors have been reduced to handing out gauze and bandages to the seriously wounded, the official said. More than 100 dead bodies have been left inside the compound because no one will risk burying them amid the constant shelling, he said.

The hospital's admissions ward was hit by a mortar round Tuesday in an attack that killed 49 patients and bystanders, health officials said.

Mr. Obama called on the Tamil Tigers to "lay down their arms and let civilians go."

"Their forced recruitment of civilians and their use of civilians as human shields is deplorable. These tactics will only serve to alienate all those who carry them out," he said.

But Mr. Obama also criticized the Sri Lankan government, calling for an end to
the indiscriminate shelling that has taken hundreds of innocent lives, including several hospitals. "

The government should live up to its commitment to not use heavy weapons in the conflict zone.

A separate attack on the hospital killed 64 civilians earlier this month.