Trapped by the fighting

Aid agencies fear the fighting could create food shortages

Concern is growing for the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians in northern Sri Lanka.

Aid officials in Jaffna say that at least 15 civilians have been killed as a result of fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces since Friday.

Both sides have escalated their long-range attacks with the battle lines drawing dangerously close to populated areas of the Jaffna peninsula.

The international humanitarian agency Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) said it had urged Sri Lanka's warring parties to spare civilians and ensure the safety of the local population.

Civilians at risk

An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 Tamil civilians are believed to be living in the region.

Almost all of them have been refugees at one time or another in the past two decades as the government and the rebels fought over Jaffna.

Caught between the rebels and the army

MSF says the main hospital itself is at great risk.

The aid agency is accusing the military of locating a base near the medical facility and thereby placing patients at risk of getting hit by rebel fire.

For its part, the military has asked civilians living in the island's northern mainland to move away from rebel installations because the air force has stepped up aerial bombardments.

Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said the airforce was only bombing targets positively identified as Tiger locations, but admitted that accidents could happen.

Bus services have been seriously affected

In the battle-scarred Jaffna town, aid officials said the civilians are forced to run the gauntlet of the military and the Tamil rebels who have infiltrated the region for several years.

Those who are suspected of passing on information about rebel activity to the military authorities or of involvement in political activity have been shot dead.

At the same time, those suspected to be linked to the rebels also face dire consequences at the hands of the military.

Fleeing the fighting

For the past week, Jaffna has been under a curfew with restrictions eased for a brief period during the day.

Thousands of civilians have left the heart of the town to live with friends and relatives further north.

Aid officials say that some of those who left have returned but it is difficult to say how many were living away from their homes because of the lack of a proper system of monitoring the refugees.

The government has given assurances that there is no shortage of food or medicine in the peninsula but aid workers say prolonged fighting could disrupt the distribution system and cause serious shortages for the civilians.

Transport officials say bus services have been seriously affected because of the fighting and the curfew, and that the authorities are finding it difficult to pay the salaries of bus crews.