The Sri Lankan military continues to press its advantage in the long-standing conflict against the separatist north, and while they seem to be gaining considerable momentum, an increasingly bloody military victory seems likely to complicate attempts to quiet the separatist sentiment.

The latest complain today came from Sri Lankan health officials, who say that the military has been shelling a makeshift hospital inside a government-declared “safe zone” for civilians for the past three days, and has killed at least 67 civilians in the attacks.

The “safe zone” was established primarily in an effort to get civilians to leave the nearby war zones, allowing the government forces more leeway to target rebels. Yet their success in coaxing the civilians into the safe zone means little if the military is just going to shell that as well.

The separatist conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels (largely the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has endured for over 25 years, and has killed tens of thousands of combatants, as well as untold thousands of civilians.

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