Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte said on Friday an investigation had been ordered into the air-strike in Mullaithivu in north-east Sri Lanka. Ratwatte did not deny the incident, but said it could have been an "accident". "It may have happened, it may not have happened. Maybe the target was not reached. It happens in war," he told journalists at an army function. The incident was confirmed on Thursday by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), which said 22 civilians were killed and over 30 wounded when Sri Lankan combat aircraft bombed a crowded area near Puthukudiyirrupu on Wednesday morning.

However, the bombing barely made any of the newspapers, with only the Tamil daily Veerakesari running an editorial condemning it. Among the Tamil political parties, aTULF parliamentarian and the EPRLF issued statements but the others were silent.

A similar absence of outrage was apparent when the LTTE shot down a civilian plane carrying 56 Tamil passengers from Jaffna to Colombo last September. The National Peace Council, an independent group, said Wednesday's Air Force bombing and "such tragedies must be condemned and rejected by all right thinking people wherever they may live". But it was left to the UK-based Amnesty International to register the strongest protest. In a statement, the UK-based human rights watchdog said the incident "may indicate that not all precautions are being taken to protect civilians, for instance in the Air Force's selecting and vetting of targets, in choosing the timing of attacks, in the way such attacks are carried out, and in ensuring that civilians are being given advance warning when possible".

The defence ministry had on Friday said the Air Force had bombed only legitimate LTTE targets, and there was no possibility of amistake.

But drawing a comparison with the recent NATO bombings in Kosovo, Ratwatte said that if sophisticated aircraft like those could make mistakes, it was possible that the Air Force could do so as well. "Our aircraft are not as sophisticated as the ones NATO used in Kosovo. The bombings were not directed at civilians, it could have been an accident. This is just one after many years" he said.

Ratwatte said an investigation into the bombing was "underway".