Sri Lanka Hospital Shelled For Fourth Time

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Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Three people were killed and 10 wounded when a hospital treating victims of Sri Lanka's civil war was shelled for a fourth time in two days, the International Committee of the Red Cross told CNN Tuesday.

Artillery shells slammed into the hospital in the northern district of Mullaittivu on Monday evening. Strikes on the hospital on Sunday -- including one that hit the pediatric ward -- left 11 people dead, including some children, according to an aid worker who spoke to witnesses.

Government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in a battle for the remaining rebel strongholds in northern Sri Lanka, where the the country's ethnic Tamil minority has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1983.

Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the area. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.

International humanitarian aid agencies have asked for increased access to the region, calling conditions in northern Sri Lanka a "nightmarish situation."

Sarah Crowe of UNICEF told CNN Monday that aid from the United Nations was getting into the war zone only every few days.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/03/sri.lanka.fighting/