LTTE’s deadline to surrender by Tuesday afternoon has ended. The Sri Lankan army has advanced into LTTE dominated regions. There are still many civilians trapped in the region. Though reports say 50,000 civilians had fled the region it is feared that more than 1000 civilians have been killed in the final assault and many more are seriously injured.

LTTE is trying to fight a lost battle against severe army offensive. It has released videos of mutilated bodies of scores of civilians. It claimed that people who had refused to leave the region are being forced to hide under logs and trees as army is making inroads into the villages.

The Sri Lankan military has of course denied all the allegations about heavy shelling in civilian zones. According to them it is LTTE which is targeting and killing civilians who were attempting to escape from the region.

According to UN estimates it is feared thousands of civilians are still trapped in the region. Foreign reporters have been denied access to combat zone. So there is no independent source of information coming out of the combat zone. Tamil supporters worldwide are protesting against brutal army operations to flush out LTTE even at the cost of lives of scores of innocent civilians.

Via BBC