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Sri Lanka's military carried out air attacks inside rebel-held territory as the United Nations and Norwegian truce monitors voiced grave concern for 35,000 civilians trapped by the fighting.
The defence ministry said the air force destroyed a makeshift rebel artillery position inside a rebel-held area of the Batticaloa district, but claimed there were no civilians in the area.
The Tigers said at least 41 civilians were killed in shelling by security forces over the weekend.
The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) accused the rebels of preventing civilians from moving out of the battle zone and blamed the military for preventing monitors from getting to the area to evaluate the situation.
“The SLMM has not been able to monitor the situation as well as it would have wanted as monitors have been continuously refused access by the Sri Lanka army into the areas of concern,” the monitors said in a statement.
Neither side made direct comment on the SLMM statement, but the Tigers in a statement said 41 civilians had been killed due to shelling by security forces since Saturday, inside rebel-held parts of the Batticaloa district.
The military denied attacking civilians and said it was holding back retaliatory artillery fire to prevent civilian casualties.
The military said it lost 24 soldiers on Sunday because they did not use artillery in support of ground troops, to prevent civilian casualties.
Journalists have not been allowed access to the troubled area and access for relief workers has also been seriously curtailed, making it difficult to independently verify the plight of civilians.
The monitors said both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the military were in breach of the February 2002 truce with their conduct in the Vakarai area where, heavy shelling has continued since the weekend.
“The SLMM urges the parties to do their utmost to respect the ceasefire agreement and to refrain from any further violence in the area,” the monitors said.
The UN also called for humanitarian supplies to be rushed to those stuck on a thin strip of land in the middle of fighting between the LTTE and government forces.
“The critical need of the moment is the protection of these desperate civilians” and a halt to “direct shelling where civilians reside”, the world body said in a statement.
“We urgently expect the parties to adhere to their responsibilities under international humanitarian law, to ensure protection of civilians and their freedom of movement,” said the UN representative in Sri Lanka, Amin Awad.
In some areas, he said, “all fundamental rights are currently being breached”.
The defence ministry said in a statement Tuesday the rebels had resumed artillery attacks against three areas held by security forces in Batticaloa district, forcing 85 civilians to flee to government-controlled areas.
At least 3,300 Sinhalese civilians fled their homes in the district of Trincomalee, next to Batticaloa, and sought refuge in public buildings in the nearby town of Kantale, local officials said.
The Tamil Tigers are fighting for independence for the island's minority 2.5 million Tamil community in the majority-Sinhalese nation of 19.5 million people, where more than 3,500 people have been killed in the past year.
The bitter ethnic conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
