Clashes between Sri Lanka's government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels continued on Friday in the island country's eastern Batticaloa district, forcing civilians to flee en-masse, military and rebel sources said.

The Media Center for National Security (MCNS) said the Army was on the forward march to liberate those innocent Tamil civilians in the areas northwest of Batticaloa on Friday.

The military said Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels were forcibly retaining the villagers and had instructed the villagers not to leave the areas.

However, these instructions were defied by the innocent civilians and as many as 18,045 civilians had returned to the government controlled areas during last month alone, said the MCNS.

"Tigers in a desperate attempt to face the security forces thrust resorted to fire mortars at the (government) controlled areas from their hidden mortar positions," said the MCNS in a statement.

The statement said the Army was compelled to take measures to ensure the safety of civilians who are waiting to cross over to the government controlled areas and those at the borders of the controlled areas.

"During yesterday's confrontations 10 tiger cadres were reportedly killed while 17 others were injured," said the statement, adding that many middle level tiger cadres had either been killed or injured in the battle during the last two days.

The LTTE said two civilians were killed by the shelling of the Army troops and a child was injured.

The Peace Secretariat of the LTTE said in a statement that about 70,000 civilians in the region had been displaced due to continuous artillery fire into civilian settlements.

In the nearby Ampara district, the Special Task Force (STF) of the police destroyed a LTTE camp on Friday, killing a large number of LTTE rebels, said the military.

Three STF personnel died and 12 received minor injuries in Ampara's confrontation.

The military also said that it cleared four major Tamil Tiger bases near the eastern strategic port town of Trincomalee on Friday and "many number of tigers either would have got killed or evacuated after being severely injured."

Clashes between government troops and the LTTE began to escalate in December 2005, with more than 4,000 people having been killed from both sides.

The conflicts have also jeopardized the 2002 Norwegian backed peace process.

Source: Xinhua