Official: Shelling in Sri Lanka war zone kills 10

[oberliner]

Source: AP

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The Sri Lankan military fired scores of artillery shells into the northern war zone overnight, killing at least 10 civilians despite a pledge to stop using heavy weapons in its offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels, a health official in the region said Friday.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara denied the army had fired artillery into the 3-mile- (5 kilometer-) long strip of coastal land still under rebel control, and said the insurgents might be setting off the explosions themselves to implicate the government.

Suspected rebels also opened a new front in the war — in cyberspace — hacking the army's official Web site and replacing it with photos that purportedly showed civilian casualties of the war. The military, which blamed the Tamil Tigers for the cyber attack, said it planned to have the problem fixed Friday.

The shelling of the battle zone, which is crowded with tens of thousands of civilians, began Thursday night and lasted until Friday morning, with more than 100 shells hitting the area, said a government health official who witnessed the barrage.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_as/as_sri_lanka_civil_war;_ylt=AuTnMgxsZ.HZKH8Bx5jmE7ys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJva3Vob2puBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNTAxL2FzX3NyaV9sYW5rYV9jaXZpbF93YXIEY3BvcwM0BHBvcwMxNARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNvZmZpY2lhbHNoZWw-