Sri Lanka has been under attack from several countries,

especially the US, UK and France, over the alleged killings of civilians present in the 'No Fire Zone' during the last phase of the 30-year-old bloody civil war that ended with the death of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's once-feared chief Velupillai Prabhakaran. The six-member Court of Inquiry comprising military officers was appointed by the Sri Lankan Army to go into allegations made by UK-based Channel 4 referred to in the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report. The report also said that the Army commanders at all times obeyed the 'Zero Civilian Casualty' directive made by Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the the directives from the higher headquarters with regard to 'No Fire Zones'. The report said the policy was followed even when the LTTE terrorists had fired from NFZs. "In order to avoid civilian deaths the artillery commanders had added 500 meters to the boundaries of NFZs given by higher headquarters thereby extending the boundaries of NFZs by 500 metres," the report said. LLRC findings had urged investigations into the large number of civilians killed during the final phase of the war and were the subject of a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution last year. The resolution compelled Sri Lanka to expeditiously implement the recommendations as a prerequisite for achieving reconciliation with the Tamil minority.