The Sri Lankan military said government troops killed at least 45 Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in fierce battles today in what the government says is its final push into the last rebel-held area.
The campaign to end the 25-year-old war is focused on 21 square km (eight sq miles) of the northeastern coast of the Indian Ocean island, where the army has encircled Tamil Tiger fighters and tens of thousands of civilians.
"Troops recovered 45 bodies of LTTE (Tamil Tiger) terrorists who were killed in today's fighting," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. Troops also recovered arms and ammunition from the rebels, he added.
Mr Nanayakkara quoted intelligence sources as saying that in two battles on March 31 and April 1 troops killed the leader and the deputy leader of the Tamil Tigers' elite Charles Anthony brigade, named after the son of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Government troops also recovered the bodies of 31 LTTE fighters and 50 weapons yesterday, the military added.
There was no independent confirmation and the Tigers could not be reached for comment.
At the United Nations in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman said Mr Ban was "deeply distressed by reports ... that civilians are at extreme risk, with heavy casualties, and that the LTTE are keeping civilians in a very small area of active conflict against their will."
Mr Ban "deplores the forced recruitment of civilians, particularly children", urged the Tamil Tigers to let them leave the area, and said the "severe restrictions on their freedom of movement violate international law," said Farhan Haq.
Mr Ban also reminded the government "of its responsibility to protect civilians, and to avoid the use of heavy weapons in areas where there are civilians, as promised." "The government should receive and treat displaced persons in accordance with international law," Haq quoted Mr Ban as saying.
The Tigers on Tuesday accused the international community and the United Nations of applying a double standard by saying the rebels should comply with humanitarian law while ignoring what it says are attacks on civilians by the military.
The United Nations, rights groups and other nations have said the Tigers are holding people as human shields and shooting those who try to leave. They have also said the government has shelled areas packed with civilians.
Both sides deny the allegations.
The Tigers, who are on the terrorist lists of the United States, the European Union and Canada, on Tuesday accused foreign governments of not doing enough to push for a ceasefire.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday again rejected the call as a Tiger ruse to buy time to rearm, and said the war would go on until the Tigers surrender or are destroyed.
The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate nation for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, which complains of mistreatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since independence from Britain in 1948.
Reuters