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The Sri Lankan troops have captured an important earth embankment used by the Tamil Tiger rebels for defence, an official said Sunday.

The area is located near the Nanthikandal lagoon, south of an important highway in northeastern Sri Lanka.

“The 53rd division (army) has captured the bund (the earth embankment) north of the Nanthikandal lagoon, south of the A-35 road,” military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, said.

The 500 metre long and two-metre wide bund was captured Sunday morning. The Tamil Tigers had suffered extensive damage in the fighting, he added.

He said the troops are continuing operations to free Tamil civilians trapped in the northern battle front.

Meanwhile, the police said search for LTTE members (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is continuing in the jungles of Kanjilkudujiaru in northeastern part of the country. On Saturday, the security forces have shot dead four senior members of the LTTE in the area.

Sri Lanka’s government and the Tamil Tigers could face prosecution for committing war crimes in their long-running war that appears to be ending, the New York Times said Thursday.

“Sri Lanka’s leaders and the rebels must be warned that they could face prosecution for war crimes,” the daily said in an editorial titled “Sri Lanka’s Dirty War”.

“Once this fighting ends, the government and the Tamils must be persuaded to pursue a serious political settlement, or this long and brutal war would certainly reignite,” it said.

Human rights groups have accused both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Colombo of gross rights abuses.

The Times also urged the international community including India to press Colombo to allow civilians to leave the conflict zone and give NGOs access to refugee camps.

“While there are no good guys in this fight, the government must do all that it can to avoid harming civilians in a war zone. You know officials have something to hide when they bar aid groups and journalists from the war zone, as Sri Lanka has done since last year,” it said.

Pointing out that Sri Lanka has callously ignored calls for a cease-fire, the editorial noted that the government this week said the army would stop using heavy weapons against the rebels. But watchdog groups say they have reports that fierce shelling still continues.

“American officials say privately that they will try to delay Sri Lanka from getting a desperately needed $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund until all civilians are allowed to leave the war zone and aid workers have full access to refugee camps.

“Other countries should join that effort. The European Union is warning that unless Sri Lanka quickly declares a cease-fire, it will have to rethink its aid and trade. Japan and India should use their even greater economic leverage,” the Times said.

Amid mounting concern over civilian suffering, Sri Lanka Monday announced that “combat operations” against the Tamil Tigers had concluded and clarified that this did not amount to a ceasefire though it would stop using aircraft and heavy weapons.

The government ordered its security forces to stop using “heavy guns, aerial weapons and combat aircraft” that have allegedly caused thousands of deaths.

It said the military would instead start rescuing civilians from a small coastal area still held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

“The government has decided that combat operations have reached their conclusion. Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties,” the presidential secretariat said.

“Our security forces will confine their attempts to rescuing civilians who are held hostage and give foremost priority to saving civilians,” it said.

The defence ministry later clarified that there was no ceasefire and blamed “media illusionists” of twisting the government announcement as if to mean that military operations against the LTTE had been called off.

The ministry said the troops would continue with “the humanitarian operations to rescue the remaining 15,000-20,000 people held hostage by the LTTE” in the coastal belt of Mullaitivu district. But it would avoid the use of heavy calibre weaponry “coinciding with its zero civilian casualty policy”.

The death and destruction in the island’s north have caused widespread revulsion but Colombo appeared determined to pursue its military offensive until it crushed the LTTE.

Fresh fighting broke out Monday in Mullaitivu district about 395 km from capital Colombo, where the LTTE has been squeezed into an area less than 10 sq km area.

During the operations against the guerrillas, the Sri Lankan fighter jets had pounded the LTTE strongholds while its artillery rained shells in the rebel areas.

But Colombo Monday put a stop to the use of heavy firepower.

The defence ministry quoted an unnamed ministry official as saying that the decision was an exhibit “of its grave concern to avoid any form of collateral damage while surging into the remaining 10 sq km swathe” still with the Tigers.

“This is the extension of what the security forces have been continuing since the fall of Mullaitivu as terrorists resorted to taking thousands of civilians hostage,” the official said.

The ministry official stressed that the government’s decision was not a reaction to any “international pressure” but timed with the success of the world’s largest hostage rescue operation.

“Security forces are now reaching victory, combat mission reaching its conclusion and in no form will leave a breather for the internationally banned terrorist outfit or its leaders who are much wanted for thousands of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the official has been quoted as saying.

The Sri Lankan move came amid the visit of UN humanitarian chief John Holmes who is here to assess the needs of the tens of thousands of civilians who fled rebel-held areas or are still trapped in the war zone.

It also came a day after the LTTE announced a unilateral ceasefire, which was promptly rejected by the government as a “joke”.

Amid escalating street protests in Tamil Nadu, India had Friday sent two envoys, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, to urge Sri Lanka to end offensive operations.

Early Monday morning, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi got into the act by suddenly launching a hunger strike on the beachfront in Chennai to demand a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

While thousands of supporters gathered and sporadic violence erupted across Tamil Nadu, the National Security Council of Sri Lanka met in Colombo and announced it was ending its “combat operations”, a move that was promptly conveyed to India.

Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram, a Tamil himself, then telephoned Karunanidhi and conveyed the decision. The chief minister ended his hunger strike.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Monday, meanwhile, sent his International Development Minister Mike Foster to Sri Lanka “to conduct a humanitarian assessment” of the situation.

According to latest statistics, over 3,000 people fled the war zone and entered the government-controlled areas Sunday, taking the total number of civilian escapees to 111,512 in one week.

The Unicef said 50 tonnes of airlifted emergency relief supplies landed in Colombo Monday to be distributed to the Tamil civilians now in makeshift camps in Sri Lanka’s north.

Many thousands are in hospital after suffering grievous wounds in artillery shelling, aerial attacks and landmine explosions, blamed both on the military and the LTTE.

Sri Lanka Monday flatly rejected reports of making a ceasefire offer and said that the “media illusionists” have twisted the government statement on its decision “to stop using heavy guns, aerial weapons and combat aircraft” in operations in the north to ensure the safety of civilians.

The defence ministry said the troops will continue with “the humanitarian operations to rescue the remaining 15,000-20,000 people held hostage by LTTE” while avoiding the use of heavy calibre weaponry as a strict measure “coinciding with its zero civilian casualty policy”.

It said some sections of the media have misinterpreted the government declaration as a ‘cessation of hostilities’ cum ‘ceasefire’.

“This is a crude and an unethical way of media ‘reportash’, a blatant twist of the original statement, perpetrated to motivate the hell-bent terrorist sympathizers cum political louts,” the ministry quoted a defence official as saying.

The official has said that the government decision was an exhibit “of its grave concern to avoid any form of collateral-damage while surging into the remaining 10 sq km swathe of coast, south of Valayarmadam and Vellamullivaikkal” in the north-eastern Mullaitivu district.

“This is the same and an extension of what the security forces have been continuing since the fall of Mullaitivu, as terrorists resorted to taking thousands of civilians as hostage,” the defence official said.

He stressed that the government decision was not a reaction to any “international pressure but solely timed with the success of the ongoing world’s largest hostage rescue operation”.

“Security forces are now reaching victory, combat mission reaching its conclusion and in no form will leave a breather for the internationally banned terrorist outfit or its leaders who are much wanted for thousands of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the official has been quoted as saying.

A statement from the Presidential Secretariat earlier in the day said: “Government of Sri Lanka has decided that combat operations have reached their conclusion”.

“Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian causalties,” it said, adding that the troops will confine their attempts to rescuing civilians who are held hostage.

The Sri Lankan government plans to turn the country’s war-torn northeastern region, which boasts of some of the island’s most scenic beaches, into a tourist attraction as the decades-old conflict with the Tamil Tigers seems to be nearing its end.

“The battle between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is nearing its end, paving way for long awaited peace and development in these areas. Against this backdrop, Sri Lanka Tourism is gearing up for a post conflict strategy focusing on development of the tourist potential in the northeast,” said an official statement issued here.

“The development of the east is of specific focus for the government as the beaches there are some of the best in the island. Arugam Bay is famous as one of the best surfing destinations in the world,” the statement said.

The tourism department is making plans for development of other locations such as Passikudah and Trincomalee, which have excellent beaches for recreation.

The strategies on the anvil include a marketing blitz for Sri Lanka Tourism, promoting the area as an ‘off the beaten track’ vacation, promotional activities with hotels and the national carrier Sri Lankan Airlines. The primary markets are the French, German and British tourists, the statement said.

Nearly 250,000 post cards will also be distributed among visitors while a discount booklet will be distributed with over 50 discount offers for a range of hotels and shopping malls.

The statement said that in 2005, the LTTE had over 16,000 sq km under its control.

But within two-and-a-half years of start of a military campaign in 2006, the government has managed to squeeze the rebels to 8 sq km area in the northeastern part of the country.

“As the conflict is drawing to an end in the north, there is a sense of relief among all citizens that peace, prosperity and development is close at hand.”

Government forces have stepped up operations to capture the last LTTE-held area in northern Sri Lanka after rejecting a unilateral ceasefire offered by the Tamil Tigers, a pro-rebel website said Monday.

Sri Lankan troops have launched operations from the north, west and south on Mullivaikkal area, a narrow strip on the coast area of the Mullaitivu district, 395 km northeast of the capital Colombo, the TamilNet website said.

The report said the operation had been launched around 3.45 a.m. Monday (2215 GMT Sunday), and heavy gunfire was reported in the area.

Military officials confirmed they were continuing their operations but declined to comment whether they had stepped up the attack.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels have claimed that an estimated 160,000 civilians are pinned down in the coastal area, but the government says there are only 20,000 civilians still trapped. Other sources say there may be around 40,000 people in the war zone.

“If the expected offensive goes forward, there will be more than 10,000 casualties as the area is densely populated and there is no cover from bombs, shells, and bullets,” TamilNet quoted a press statement issued by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), a front organisation for the LTTE, as stating.

Civilians trapped in the area face severe shortages of food and medicine, as the last aid transport, a ship sailing under a Red Cross flag, reached the area April 2.

Last week, some 109,000 civilians fled from the combat zone into the government-controlled areas raising the total of number of refugees to 170,000 since January.

Tamil rebels announced a unilateral ceasefire Sunday, but Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejected the offer saying the rebels must surrender.

The defence secretary, who is the brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, vowed to fight until the LTTE is crushed.

Visiting UN humanitarian chief John Holmes also called for a humanitarian pause enabling civilians to leave the combat zone, but his call was so far ignored by the Sri Lankan government.

Holmes is due to meet Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama Monday to further discuss the trapped civilians’ plight as well as measures to assist those who have already fled the area and are living in government-controlled camps.

“Foreign Secretary David Miliband, together with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner and Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt, will visit (Sri Lanka) on Wednesday,” a statement from the British High Commission said.

On Sunday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned President Rajapaksa to express his concern about the plight of the civilians trapped in the rebel area.

The military says they are on the final phase of crushing the LTTE who have been fighting in the north and eastern parts of Sri Lanka for an independent homeland for minority Tamils from the Sinhalese majority for the last 25 years.

Government troops fought their way into some of the last Tamil rebel-held areas in north-eastern Sri Lanka Friday, with special focus on locating the hideout of the rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, military officials said.

The officials said that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which had been capturing visual images from air, also have been used to monitor the movements of the rebels and locate the area where the rebel leader is believed to be hiding.

However, a senior military official based in the northern war front told reporters Friday that the rebel leader may have escaped in a submarine from the narrow land strip where the rebels have been cornered.

But Brigadier Shavindra de Silva, who has been leading the troops in the operations, told a group of journalists who are on conducted tour to the areas captured by the military that according to intelligence reports the rebel leader and a few of his senior members are still in the area.

Rebels are now confined to an area of eight sq km in Mullaitivu district, 395 km north-east of the capital.

He said in the last two days of fighting 15 soldiers were killed and 75 others injured.

The number of civilians leaving the rebel-held areas has reduced since Thursday with fresh fighting reported in the area.

On Thursday only 2,934 civilians left the rebel-held area while Friday only 300 people left the area, according to the military.

A mass exodus was reported from Monday to Wednesday, when nearly 175,000 civilians fled into the government-controlled area.

Local and international organisations have expressed concern about the plight of the civilians who remain in the area. Government officials quoting civilians coming out of the area say the figure may be around 15,000 to 20,000, but other sources say the figure could be around 40,000.

Verification of the wildly differing estimates could not be obtained because of tight restrictions on news reporting in the area.

Earlier the government was maintaining that there were only 70,000 civilians trapped, but with the mass exodus it was revealed that the government estimates were inaccurate.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Thursday said he was concerned about the situation in Sri Lanka and was sending a humanitarian team to the north-eastern coast where the civilians are trapped.

However, it was unlikely that such a visit would be possible as fighting continues between Tamil rebels and troops in the area.

Sri Lanka and the UN Thursday made frantic appeals for assistance as the exodus of Tamil civilians from the war zone escalated into a grave humanitarian crisis even as the government claimed that the Tamil Tigers were about to be crushed, ending one of the world’s longest running insurgencies.

With the number of Tamil refugees crossing the 103,000-mark, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka Neil Buhne gave a heart-rending account of the plight of the civilians after visiting some camps.

“I saw infants with dysentery, malnourished children and women, untended wounds, and people dressed in the ragged clothing they have been wearing for months,” Buhne said in a statement, seeking urgent funds to meet the critical needs of the “crowds of weary and hungry people”.

“We need funds for all the basics like food, medicine, water, sanitation, nutrition, shelter and clothing. And we want to try to get kids as soon as possible back into school to give them some semblance of normality,” said the UN official.

Sri Lanka admitted separately that “we face an emergency humanitarian situation” and added that an estimated 15,000-20,000 civilians continued to be trapped in a shrunken and small area still with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

As the UN Security Council met Wednesday to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Colombo had won pledges of support from countries such as the US and India.

“With the unprecedented influx of large numbers of people in such a short period of time, obviously we do face an emergency humanitarian situation, and our friends in the international community are most welcome to provide emergency relief assistance, initially by way of semi-permanent shelter, water purification plants, sanitation facilities and medical assistance,” Bogollagama said.

In a non-binding statement, the UN Security Council urged the Tigers to surrender and called on the Sri Lankan government to protect civilians and allow international agencies access to victims of the conflict.

According to the military, the civilian avalanche began Monday morning, with some of the escapees alleging that armed Tiger guerrillas had shot at them when they tried to leave for safer areas.

“All along we have been waiting for the day when we can say the LTTE is defeated. Today is the day. It is a historic day,” Bogollagama said, adding that the guerrillas’ endgame was “being played out on the muddy waters on the western edge of Mullaitivu (district) coast”.

The authorities, however, admitted that the last of the Tamil Tigers holed up in a small strip of land were still offering “dwindling but constant” resistance. The pro-LTTE TamilNet website said a ship with relief material for the civilians could not reach the northeastern coast.

The LTTE was trying to prevent the army from overrunning their last positions where the rebel leaders are believed to be hiding. There is no word on Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE founder who has led a violent campaign to carve out an independent Tamil state out of Sri Lanka.

On Wednesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed that Prabhakaran would have to face “consequences” for all his acts of violence the past 25 years and for rejecting his surrender call.

By Thursday morning, the number of people fleeing the war zone since the beginning of this year shot up to about 175,700. These include over 31,000 children and 28,000 women.

The military said “elaborate arrangements were underway” to accommodate the swelling numbers of civilian refugees, whose plight has been described by some diplomats as appalling.

Many of them had been boxed in the LTTE area for about four months, unable to escape even as fighting escalated.

The government said efforts were on to coordinate with the ministry of resettlement and rehabilitation, security forces and selected state and private sector agencies to provide emergency assistance to the civilians.

Over 1,250 refugees were at the Vavuniya hospital and nearly 1,000 were warded in a hospital in the nearby district of Mannar. At least four other hospitals in the two districts were also teeming with patients.

The Sri Lankan government has rejected international calls to halt fighting even temporarily, saying pressure should be mounted on the Tigers instead to make them free the civilians in their control.

On Wednesday night, India asked Sri Lanka to ensure that the killings of Tamil civilians were stopped and underlined that it will do “all it can to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis”.

“We are very unhappy at the continued killing of innocent Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka. These killings must stop,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

With more than 25,000 Tamil protesters likely to converge on parliament when Prime Minister Stephen Harper returns to the house Tuesday, Canada has urged Tamil Tigers to negotiate with Sri Lanka to end hostilities.

Thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils have been protesting in Ottawa for two weeks, seeking Canada’s intervention to end the “genocide” of Tamils in the conflict zone. Five protesters even sat on a 10-day hunger strike, demanding sanctions on Colombo and withdrawal of the Canadian envoy.

As parliament re-convened Monday, Tamil leaders tried to meet Canadian ministers and MPs to seek intervention in the crisis. They said about 25,000 protesters will show up when the prime minister returns.

However, in a statement Monday, the Canadian government urged the Tamil Tigers to negotiate terms with the Sri Lankan government and not to stop civilians fleeing the conflict zone.

Calling upon Sri Lanka to show restraint to let civilians leave the conflict zones, the statement said: “Both sides must allow the safe and voluntary movement of civilians from combat zones and ensure full, safe and unhindered access for humanitarian workers to those in need.

“The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) must stop preventing civilians from leaving the remaining LTTE-controlled territory and must allow freedom of movement to civilians under their control.”

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said: “I have spoken with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Canadian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Angela Bogdan today (Monday) on the humanitarian issues of concern, such as access to water, sanitation and medical support.

“I have instructed our high commissioner to continue Canada’s engagement with the government of Sri Lanka on the need for assistance to internally displaced persons.”

The foreign minister said: “The conflict cannot be resolved militarily; it can only be settled through a durable political solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of all the people of Sri Lanka.”

He said the LTTE should “discuss with the government of Sri Lanka the terms for ending hostilities, including the renunciation of violence, the laying down of arms, and acceptance of the government of Sri Lanka’s offer of amnesty, as the first step toward an inclusive political dialogue that can contribute to a lasting peace.”

Closing in on the last Tamil Tiger base, Sri Lanka Monday ordered rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his fighters to surrender by Tuesday noon or face death.

“We have issued the last and final 24-hour ultimatum to Prabhakaran and his group to surrender,” defence ministry spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters Monday.

“The ultimatum began this noon (Monday and) will expire tomorrow noon. Otherwise they will have to face the military course of action,” he said.

The ultimatum to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) came after about 30,000 civilians fled Sri Lanka’s northern war zone as troops moved deep into the last Tamil Tiger stronghold in Mullaitivu district.