Sri Lankan soldiers battled into the last redoubt of the Tamil Tigers on Tuesday, and an exodus of people trapped by the rebels in the coastal strip reached nearly 50,000, the military said.
The operation gathered speed after the military's noon (0630 GMT) deadline for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to surrender passed without any word from the separatists, in what appears to be the final act in Asia's longest-running war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned the situation was "nothing short of catastrophic" and urged both sides to prevent further mass casualties among civilians, saying hundreds had been killed in the past 48 hours.
The neutral agency did not assign blame to either side.
Sri Lanka's military, in what it dubbed the world's largest hostage rescue operation, moved in to keep the stream of people moving and give troops a clear shot at the LTTE and its elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
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"So far 49,054 people have come out and still people are coming in. Troops are expanding the area under their control," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The United Nations and Western governments have urged the military to renew a brief truce to negotiate the civilians' exit, a plea the government has rejected on the grounds the Tigers have dismissed all entreaties to let the people out.
The state-run ‘Daily News’, quoting army commander Lt-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, said soldiers had reached the shoreline and taken control of the only medical facility in the no-fire zone, a makeshift hospital run by the ICRC in Puttumatalan.
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