Colombo_(dpa) _ Security forces on Thursday declared a new safe zone for civilians fleeing rebel-held areas in north-eastern Sri Lanka as fresh fighting left at least 28 Tamil separatist rebels dead, a military spokesman said.
As hundreds of civilians remained trapped by the fighting, a 12-kilometre strip of land close to a lagoon in Mullaitivu, 390 kilometres north-east of Colombo, was declared a safe zone.
It is to replace a 35-square-kilometre safe zone in the centre of the battle zone and is closer to the sea.
The military said the International Committee of the Red Cross was informed of the new safe zone.
The move came as the Red Cross was preparing Thursday to evacuate another 160 injured and ill people by sea to the north-eastern port city of Trincomalee. On Tuesday, 356 injured and ill and other civilians were removed by sea in a similar operation.
Heavy fighting continued in the final rebel strongholds in the Mullaitivu area where there are an estimated 120,000 civilians, according to the government.
UN agencies initially estimated 250,000 civilians were in the area remaining under rebel control. About 30,000 have entered government-controlled areas.
Civilians fleeing the area said the rebels were trying to stop them from leaving and food and medical supplies were running out.
The government has stopped sending food convoys into the area on the grounds that they were no longer safe. The limited medical staff in the north has also been told to leave because of the fighting.
The Defence Ministry said troops have withstood heavy resistance from the rebels while carrying out their operations and at least 28 rebels were killed Wednesday.
Troops captured a highly fortified camp where they found four 120-millimetre mortar guns, two 81-millimetre mortar guns, two claymore mines, six electrically operated mines and one radio.
Tamil rebels have been pushed into an area of less than 150 square kilometres in what is seen as the last phase of a long military battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The rebels have been fighting for the past 25 years for an independent homeland for the Tamil ethnic minority in the northern and eastern provinces of majority-Sinhalese Sri Lanka, but the rebels have lost almost all their territory in the military drive launched in August 2006. dpa ad jh ls
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