Sri Lankan army rescues 5,000 civiians from LTTE area

Troops stormed a coastal village in north-eastern Sri Lanka Monday and rescued about 5,000 civilians held by Tamil rebels, military spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

He said that troops broke through an earthen barrier in Puthumathalan village, 390 km north-east of the capital, in the early hours of Monday and rescued the civilians, including a large number of women and children.

The civilians were trapped in a 12-km stretch along the coastal area for the past three months, though some of the villagers managed to evade the rebels and escape, military officials said.

According to army estimates, around 70,000 civilians have been stranded in the coastal areas where drinking water is scarce. The government has been sending shipments of food by sea into the area.

An estimated 68,000 civilians have left the rebel-held areas and are currently in camps controlled by the government.

The military says it is in the last phase of a military drive to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).