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A senior UN official in Sri Lanka says "many civilians" have died in the last two days of clashes between the army and Tamil Tiger fighters in and around the port of Mullaitivu in the country's northeast.
Neil Buhne, the UN resident coordinator in Sri Lanka, said reports indicated an estimated 150,000 civilians were still trapped in the jungle battle zone and were in serious danger.
"It is really dangerous now. There are so many people, so many guns and such a high intensity of fighting," Bune told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday.
"There have been many civilians killed over the last two days. It is really a crisis now."
The LTTE says it is committed towards the creation of an independent Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka.
'Civilians flee'
Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Mullaitivu, said the Tamil Tigers appear to have fled the town.
"There are no civilians, just stray cows and members of the Sri Lankan army division which took this town. We've been hearing shelling constantly since we arrived here," he said.
"Although The Tamil Tigers seem to be retreating they seem to be putting up some resistance.
"The civilians appear to be retreating with the Tamil Tigers. The government is saying they are being forced to - that they are being used as human shields - but we don't know that for certain."
Deep concern
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has also expressed concern over the fate of the trapped civilians.
"[Ban] is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of civilians caught in intensified fighting in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka between the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka," a statement from his office said.
Ban urged the Sri Lankan government to "accord immediate and absolute priority" towards ensuring the safety of civilians and aid workers, and to ensure that those affected are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Buhne told Al Jazeera that although the Sri Lankan government had earlier made "very sincere efforts" to minimize civilian casualties, the tactic no longer applied amid escalating tension in the war zone.
"There are just too many soldiers around. You have the [separatists] intermingled with the civilians ... and you have thousands and thousands of well-armed Sri Lankan forces surrounding those civilians," he said.
"We think that it is a tinderbox that we hope will not ignite."
Rajiva Wijesinha, the secretary-general of the Sri Lankan government secretariat for coordinating the country's peace process, told Al Jazeera that the LTTE should be held responsible for civilian casualties.
"For the last three months, the LTTE, have been driving people with them to smaller and smaller areas, and even shooting people who are tying to get out," he said.
"And as the LTTE get more desperate, they are losing the lives of these people. The government actually declared a safe area a few days back, but then we had information that the LTTE were moving their ammunitions into this area."
Government denial
Gotabaya Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan defense minister, said that government forces exercised extreme caution during the offensive and only fired on Tamil Tiger rebels.
He dismissed the claims of civilian deaths as LTTE propaganda, insisting that no civilians have died in the recent fighting, and that reports to the contrary should not be believed.
"We don't use indirect fire unless we are 100 per cent certain that those are LTTE camps or bases," Rajapakse told Al Jazeera.
"This is all LTTE propaganda."
Gordon Weiss, a UN spokesman in Colombo, said at least 30 civilians were killed on Monday inside an area the Sri Lankan military had declared as a "safety zone", while dozens more were killed or wounded over the weekend.
PHOTO CAPTION
Map of northern Sri Lanka where the army is battling the Tamil Tiger rebels
Al-Jazeera
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