Nearly 800 civilians have fled Sri Lanka’s shrinking war zone in the last day as the army bears down on the last strongholds of separatist Tamil Tigers, the military said on Wednesday.
Troops are marching to the port of Mullaittivu across a small wedge of northeastern Sri Lanka still held by the Tigers, where aid groups say about 230,000 people are trapped in an area of no more than 330 square km (127 square miles).
“In the last 24 hours, 796 people have come out of the war zone,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. They have been provided with basic facilities and food, and will either be sent to the army-held Jaffna Peninsula or south to Vavuniya, site of the army’s rear headquarters for the war, he said. At least 1,000 civilians have fled this week.
Rights groups accuse the Tigers of holding Tamils hostage in the war zone as human shields, forced conscripts and labourers.
The military in the last two weeks seized two major strategic targets, the rebels’ self-proclaimed capital of Kilinochchi and Elephant Pass, which puts all of Jaffna under their control for the first time since 2000.
After those two major blows, the army has turned all units toward Mullaittivu, surging through a jungle where analysts estimate the Tigers have about 2,000 hardcore fighters left.
he Tigers are on U.S., E.U. and Indian terrorism lists after carrying out hundreds of assassinations and suicide bombings, including against Tamils who challenged them.
Lanka Defence Watch 