Tigers tell of death, destruction under government bombardment

SAMPUR, Sri Lanka, Apr. 28 (AFP) - Houses in this rebel-held town were deserted and streets eerily empty Friday, three days after Sri Lanka's military pounded it with a fiery blitz that a Tamil Tiger political officer said killed 15 people and injured 25. Foreign donors were to meet Friday in Oslo in a bid to save the four-year-old ceasefire under severe strain after the latest violence.

-Bryan Pearson Smashed buildings, tangled powerlines and small blood-stained bomb and shell craters gave a hint of the mayhem wreaked during Tuesday's government strike on the town in Trincomalee district of northeastern Sri Lanka.

Now sheltering at a school in the nearby village of Pattalipuram, residents of Sampur told how they had fled in the night to escape the rain of destruction that fell from the sky.

"It was frightening. It didn't seem to stop," said T.

Jeyathas, who reached the school with his small family of four at 3:00 am on Wednesday, having walked as fast as they could along dark pathways praying they wouldn't be hit by a rocket or bomb.

Others told similar stories of their terror in the night and said they were too afraid to return to their homes even though there had been no bombings since Wednesday.

"We'll wait here till we