Civilians pour out of Sri Lanka war zone

COLOMBO – At least 10,000 civilians have escaped Sri Lanka's war zone in the last four days, the government said Sunday, as the president warned Tamil Tiger rebels to surrender unconditionally or be killed.

The Tigers are fighting for survival after being driven back into a small patch of jungle by a military offensive that threatens to end their armed campaign for an independent ethnic Tamil homeland, launched in 1972.

Two Tiger boats fleeing the fighting were attacked and sunk by the navy on Sunday off the coast of Mullaittivu, navy spokesman Captain D. K. P. Dassanayake said, adding that they recovered the bodies of two rebels.

He said there were no casualties among navy sailors who had tracked the two rebel boats for over an hour before blasting them out of the water.The sea clash came as civilians were also fleeing the fighting."Over 10,000 civilians have come to Kilinochchi while 139 others have come to Jaffna since the Independence Day (Wednesday)," the defence ministry said. "Among the rescued civilians are over 2,800 children and about 3,000 women."

The ministry added that medical care, food and water was being provided at the frontlines for the fleeing civilians, who it says were among those held by the Tigers as "human shields."Many of the Tigers' cadres at the battlefront were in civilian clothing, the ministry said, adding that meant the rebels could claim that civilians were attacked when its own cadres got killed or wounded.

There was no immediate reaction from the Tigers, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said that 120 civilians had been killed in two days of shelling.