UN: Cluster bombs fired during fighting

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 02-05-2009 14:25

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse says his country has been able to win true freedom with his campaign to crush the Tamil Tiger rebellion.

Meanwhile, the country has denied allegations of firing cluster munitions during fighting against rebels.

A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard at a security check  point in Colombo. Sri Lanka's president predicted  Wednesday the total defeat of Tamil Tigers rebels within  "a few days," as international pressure grew for a  ceasefire to allow civilians to leave the last combat  zone.AFP/Ishara S. Kodikara

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka celebrated its 61st anniversary of independence. During the ceremony to mark the event, President Rajapakse said the country's military stood on the verge of crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE.

In January, Sri Lankan troops dismantled the rebel's administrative capital of Kilinochchi.

The military is currently poised to completely defeat the LTTE, which has been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since the 1980s.

Meanwhile, with concern growing for an estimated 250-thousand ethnic Tamils trapped in the conflict zone, the United Nations said cluster munitions appeared to have been used near a hospital in northern Sri Lanka on Wednesday.