COLOMBO – Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down 19 people fleeing Sri Lanka's war zone and the bodies were carried among the more than 1,000 civilians who reported to army-held areas on Tuesday, the military said.
"A total of 1,057 civilians arrived today. The LTTE terrorists had fired on them, killing 19 and injuring 69 others," Nanayakkara said. He said those fleeing the fighting carried the bodies with them.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had begun an operation to carry 400 sick and wounded people out of the war zone by boat, moving them to a chartered ferry with the help of local fishermen and their small boats.
The number of people fleeing fighting between Sri Lanka's army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has picked up sharply in the past week, with the separatist rebels now confined to less than 175 square km (67 sq miles).
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said those who reached army-held areas on Tuesday told authorities the LTTE had shot at dozens of fleeing people.
That brings to 28,226 the total number of people who have escaped the war zone this year, according to the military -- nearly all of them in the last week.
Source: Reuters