Separately, a local worker for the International Committee of the Red Cross and his mother were killed in the shelling, a spokesman for the Geneva-based humanitarian agency said.
The 31-year-old man was one of some 20 Lankans working for the Red Cross in the dwindling two-square mile conflict zone, where thousands of civilians remain trapped. “We are not sure if it was a direct or indirect hit, but they were killed in crossfire,” said Marcal Izard, a Red Cross spokesman. “They seem to have been sleeping in trenches reinforced by sandbags, like most of the people living in the zone.”