110 killed in fresh Sri Lanka fighting

Some 3,000 civilians on Sunday were fleeing as heavy artillery duels in Sri Lanka's restive northeast killed more than 110 people, including 41 civilians, according to rebels and security forces.

The two sides said sporadic mortar bomb attacks and artillery fire continued throughout on Sunday along the Trincomalee and Batticaloa district borders. The International Red Cross said more than 3,300 people were displaced.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a statement asked both the military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to comply with international humanitarian law.

The ICRC appeal came as the LTTE said 41 civilians in areas held by them had been killed in two days of shelling by troops. The military denies attacking civilians and in turn accuses the rebels of using human shields. "The ICRC urges the parties to respect the freedom of movement of internally displaced people," the Geneva-based organisation said amid fears that civilians were trapped by heavy fighting. The LTTE said the military launched a fresh offensive against them at Vakarai sparking renewed fighting.

"The number of civilians killed in yesterday's shelling also rose to 22, taking the total civilian death toll over the two days to 41," the LTTE said in a statement. The defence ministry said the guerrillas initiated the offensive and that the military had counter-attacked and inflicted heavy losses on the rebels.

The military said 12 soldiers were killed on Sunday. But the Tamil Tigers had placed military losses on Saturday alone at 30. The military placed rebel losses at 40 killed while the rebels said they lost three fighters. Both sides blamed each other for the plight of civilians trapped in rebel-held areas as well as territory controlled by the military. The renewed attacks came after peacebroker Norway failed on Friday to secure an agreement to end a blockade on the Jaffna peninsula, where nearly half a million people are trapped by fighting.

The LTTE said it told Oslo's envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, to persuade the government to provide unconditional access to the embattled north. The government had asked Hanssen-Bauer to secure a deal with the rebels to allow a convoy of some 400 trucks to travel through rebel-held territory, but the rebels rejected a one-off convoy. Instead, the LTTE's political wing leader, S.P. Thamilselvan, told Hanssen-Bauer the government must open a disputed highway to Jaffna and another highway to the island's east.

The Tamil Tigers have been campaigning for independence for the island's minority 2.5-million Tamil community in the majority Sinhalese nation of 19.5 million people.