Sri Lanka troops kill 41 Tamil Tiger rebels

COLOMBO (Agencies) - At least 41 Tamil Tiger rebels have died in the latest push by Sri Lankan government troops into the rebels' shrinking fiefdom, the island's defence ministry said Friday.
The ministry said the rebels were killed in battles around the small town of Puthukkudiriruppu in the north east, where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been hemmed into a small jungle area.
It said the clashes since Thursday also led to the recovery of a large haul of arms and ammunition. No details on government casualties were given.
There was no comment from the LTTE, and no independent confirmation of the claims - as Sri Lanka bars independent journalists and most aid workers from the north.
Colombo withdrew from a Norwegian-brokered truce at the beginning of last year. It has rejected calls for another truce, saying troops now have the upper hand in the decades-old conflict and are close to crushing the rebels.
Meanwhile, United Nations' human rights chief Navi Pillay said Friday she feared both sides could be guilty of war crimes in the Sri Lanka conflict and that more than 2,800 civilians could have been killed since late January.
"Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the LTTE (Tamil Tiger rebels) may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," said Pillay in a statement.
"We need to know more about what is going on, but we know enough to be sure that the situation is absolutely desperate. The world today is ever sensitive about such acts that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," she added.
The statement said credible sources had told the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that more than 2,800 civilians might have been killed, including hundreds of children, and more than 7,000 injured since January 20. The Sri Lankan defence ministry says troops are on the verge of defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1972.
Many of the casualties were inside areas designated as safe "no-fire" zones by the Sri Lankan government, the OHCHR statement added.
According to UN estimates, a total of 150,000 to 180,000 civilians remain trapped in an ever-shrinking area of territory in the northern Vanni region.
Sri Lanka officially estimates that 70,000 civilians are still in the war zone along with around 500 Tiger fighters.
"The current level of civilian casualties is truly shocking, and there are legitimate fears that the loss of life may reach catastrophic levels, if the fighting continues in this way," the high commissioner said. "The brutal and inhuman treatment of civilians by the LTTE is utterly reprehensible, and should be examined to see if it constitutes war crimes," she added.
The government bars most journalists and aid workers from the north of the island, meaning the claims cannot be confirmed.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a swift halt to the conflict to avoid further civilian casualties after the International Red Cross said in January that "hundreds" had been killed.