Some 42,000 civilians have been trapped in the Tamil rebel controlled areas in north eastern Sri Lanka Thursday, rebel sources said.

This was after battled raged between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels and the government troops in the eastern province's Maavil Aru area early morning of Thursday.

The government troops wanted to gain control of the area after the rebels had opened a shut down sluice gate on Tuesday.

The government denying the rebels had opened the gate said the military was responsible for the opening of the gate after 19 days which deprived water to the civilians.

Major Upali Rajapakse of the Army said that the government's military offensive in Maavil Aru was continuing even late evening on Thursday and dismissed the LTTE claims that a large number of civilians had been killed due to the Army's air raids in support of the ground troops.

"The LTTE has placed their artillery and mortar guns among the civilians if we do not retaliate we will lose heavily", Rajapakse said.

Although there was no independent confirmation of the casualty figures by evening hospital sources in the Kantalai hospital in the east and the Polonnaruwa hospital in he north central hospital said that at least 9 soldiers have been killed while over 50 had been injured. S Ilanthirayan the rebel spokesman said that 5 of their fighters had died in the fighting.

The LTTE's Head of the Peace Secretariat S Pulithevan told reporters that he had kept the diplomatic missions in Colombo informed on the plight of the internally displaced caused by Thursday's fighting.

They are without water, food or shelter, the LTTE said.

Continued fighting between the two sides since last week has seriously endangered the Norwegian backed efforts to end the long drawn out separatist armed conflict in the island. More than 64, 000 people have been killed in the conflict between the mid 1980s and February 2002.

Source: Xinhua