Civilians flee Sri Lanka fighting

By Roland Buerk
BBC News, Colombo

13,000 left their homes on a single day, the army says

Tens of thousands of civilians are fleeing intensifying fighting in the east of Sri Lanka.

The army says more than 13,000 crossed from Tamil Tiger-controlled areas into government-held territory on Friday.

The Tigers have said the government is pushing them into a full-scale war and warned the conflict will engulf the entire island.

More than 30,000 people have now fled the area to the west of the town of Batticaloa for refugee camps.

There have been increasingly heavy exchanges of artillery fire between the Tigers and government forces and the military says it will drive the rebels from the area.

'Humanitarian havoc'

In Ampara district, to the south, soldiers overran a Tiger camp.

According to the army, 20 rebels were killed.

The military says a soldier and four police commandoes also lost their lives in the east.

Four more are presumed dead after an ambush in a national park in the north-west in which four wildlife officials were also killed.

The government is now intent on taking control of the remaining pockets of the Eastern Province which the Tigers still hold.

The rebels' military spokesman, Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan, said the government was trying to push them into a full-scale war and he warned the conflict would spread throughout the island.

He also accused the international community of being deafeningly silent over the offensive, which was causing what he described as "humanitarian havoc".