Colombo says shelling images 'fake'

Sri Lanka's military has accused the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of fabricating images that purported to show the aftermath of a deadly army attack on a hospital in the conflict zone.The photographs, first published on a website, depicted what Tamil separatist sources said was an artillery hit on a makeshift hospital in Mullivaikal on Saturday.The pro-LTTE website alleged that government sources had killed 81 people after two consecutive days of shelling.But Al Jazeera's David Chater, reporting from Colombo on Sunday, said Sri Lankan military experts "have analysed the pictures and claim they were deliberately posed for propaganda purposes"."Their analysis: 'Not a single scratch mark on the fridge with a body lying at its base, unbroken glass bottles and no pellet marks on the walls, a bottle remains steady on the stretcher, all after the claimed shelling'," he said."The message, the government says, is clear: The foreign media have been taken for a ride by the Tamil Tigers."