Sri Lanka today announced constitution of a reconciliation commission to probe rights abuses during the last seven years of war with the Tamil Tigers. The setting up of an eight member commission headed by Chitta Ranjan de Silva, Chairman, which also includes two Tamilians was announced in a statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. It comes on a day, when Sri Lanka observes a yearof its forces total victory over LTTE. The three decade war ended this day when Sri Lnakan Army launched their final assault on the Tamil Tigers killing their supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran. 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation' Commission constituted yesterday will report on the lessons to be learntfrom the events in the period, February 2002 to May 2009, a Presidential Secretariat statement said today. The commission has been asked to report back to the President within six months from the date of appointment – 15th May, 2010.Meanwhile, a US-based rights group today claimed that the military in the island nation killed thousands of civilians by shelling no fire zones during the last phase of the ethnic conflict. The International Crisis Group, an advocacy group based in Brussels and Washington, said despite its promises to protect civilians and aid workers, the Sri Lankan government had bombed relentlessly in areas where it knew unarmed people were present.ICR said it has reasons to believe that senior government and military officials were aware of the attacks, but failed to protect the civilians. The group said this in a report, released on the eve of the first anniversary of the end of the bloody civil war that had claimed over 70,000 lives. It added that the violations, by both sides to the conflict, became particularly frequent and deadly in the months leading to the government's declaration of victory over the LTTE in May 2009.