More than 2,200 people have fled Sri Lanka's war zone in the last two days as the military today vowed a rapid finish to the 25-year-old war.
Fighting is concentrated around a shrinking circle of jungle in the Indian Ocean island's northeast, where the military said it has all but surrounded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists.
Trapped inside the 175 sq km battlefield are tens of thousands of civilians, whom aid agencies, the government and a growing list of nations have said are being held in the war zone by the Tigers, under grave threat of harm from the fighting.
But they have started to come out in the past three weeks.
"Today, 600 people have come up until now," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. Yesterday, 1,637 escaped the fighting, he said.
Late last night, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the military operation would proceed while ensuring civilians are kept safe, the president's office said in a statement.
Sri Lanka has said it will allow civilians safe passage, but has flatly refused calls for a cease-fire for negotiations.
The United States, Britain, the European Union and others have urged the Tigers to surrender, and for both sides to stop firing temporarily to allow civilians out and aid in.
The United Nations Wednesday said 52 people had been killed from shelling but it did not say who was responsible.
Reuters