May 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka government today vehemently denied the allegations by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that its security forces shelled the recently re-demarcated no-fire zone causing thousands civilian casualties.

The government said in a statement issued today that it denies the reports "attributable to sources aligned with or under duress from the LTTE" and said "the Government's view is that to treat the doctor's statement as evidence of irrefutable and incontrovertible fact, is unwise."

A health official in the no-fire zone claimed that artillery barrages fired by the Army troops killed 378 and injured over 1,100 civilians while the LTTE website TamilNet claimed over 2,000 deaths.

The Defence Ministry said that it was the LTTE which had fired mortars into the No-Fire Zone killing the civilians. The LTTE was desperately attempting to secure international sympathy to force a truce to avoid the inevitable defeat, the government says.

The LTTE claims cannot be independently verified as the war zone is not accessible to the media and reports coming from sources in the war zone cannot be considered credible.

Humanitarian organizations and foreign governments have consistently accused the LTTE of holding civilians as human shields and urged the rebels to allow the civilians to leave and surrender. The LTTE however have rejected the calls for surrender and vowed to continue fighting.

The LTTE rebels blamed India for the alleged carnage saying that India had "prodded" Sri Lanka to finish the war before the change of government.

Political analysts in Sri Lanka say the well-timed claim is aimed not only to discredit the Sri Lankan government but also to sway the Indian vote against Manmohan Singh's government.