Sri Lanka to resume offensive after "truce" lapses

A Sri Lankan military helicopter flies over an armoured personnel carrier in Mullaittivu, January 27, 2009.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops will move in to free thousands of people trapped by fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels after a government-declared 48-hour truce lapsed, a defence spokesman said on Sunday.

Sri Lanka's army has surrounded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a 300 sq km slice of jungle in the Indian Ocean island's northeast, aiming to end a war that started in 1983 and is one of Asia's longest-running conflicts.

Concern has grown for their safety of 250,000 people aid agencies say are trapped inside the battle zone, although the government describes those numbers as overblown.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said hundreds have been killed or wounded in fighting since last week. Colombo also disputes the number of civilian casualties but has not provided exact figures.

On Thursday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised safe passage to all civilians and urged the LTTE to let them leave within 48 hours. The Sri Lankan military said about 300 people had fled rebel-held areas since then.

"We will now have to save the civilians and move in," Sri Lankan defence spokesman Kaheliya Rambukwella said on Sunday.

The rebels rejected Rajapaksa's call, saying only an internationally brokered ceasefire would resolve the conflict.

Rambukwella said the military would continue their hunt for Tamil Tiger rebel leader Valupillai Prabhakaran, who it says is hiding among civilians.

"It is now very evident that Prabhakaran is ... using civilians as cover. We will take the utmost care of civilians when we move in," he said.

The government and human rights watchdogs have accused the Tamil Tigers of blocking civilians from leaving, forcing them to stay as human shields or using them as fighters or as labourers to build defences.

The LTTE denies the claims and says people are staying because they fear abuse by the military. The military in turn rejects that accusation and says that more than 2,000 people have fled to safety behind army lines this month.

Both sides have also traded blame over casualties.

The military says the Tigers are firing artillery from populated areas inside an army-declared no-fire zone with the hope of creating a crisis to build pressure for a truce.

The Tigers in turn accuse the military of firing into the no-fire zone. The military says it has a policy of zero civilian casualties.

It is nearly impossible to verify accounts from the war zone, which is off-limits for journalists except on carefully guided tours by the military.