Thousands flee Sri Lanka fighting

By C. Bryson Hull and Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians under rebel fire waded across a lagoon to escape Sri Lanka's war zone, where government forces have surrounded Tamil Tiger separatists for the final battle of a 25-year conflict, the military and a U.N. official said.

The military said aerial surveillance footage confirmed an exodus of around 5,000 people from a tiny, sandy coastal strip, where the United States and others say the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are holding thousands by force.

Sri Lanka and the LTTE on Thursday brushed off demands from the U.N. Security Council and U.S. President Barack Obama to take steps to protect the civilians at grave risk stuck between two foes determined to fight to the end of a war that began in 1983.

The call appeared to have come too late to stop an exodus the military has been counting on to remove the only protection the LTTE has from a military onslaught of overwhelming force.

"Already, 2,000 civilians have crossed the lagoon. There is a large number of people crossing, and the (rebels) fired at them, Four people were killed, 14 were wounded," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

By evening, there were 2,700 people checked and cleared and at least another 1,000 waiting, although darkness had made it difficult to tell, he said.

Earlier, the United Nations' acting representative for Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, told Reuters that local sources in the combat zone said up to 6,000 had escaped or were attempting to do so.

"They are trying to escape, but the LTTE is firing at them, overhead and into them. The army and the navy claimed to have rescued some, and we are concerned about those remaining," said Awad, who is also head of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR.