Pre-emptive strikes if army tries to drive out Tigers: LTTE

The military says more than 17,000 war-displaced have fled camps in and around the Tiger-held town of Vakarai in the district of Batticaloa, some through jungle and others by sea, since early November to escape artillery duels.

The army accuses the Tigers of using civilians as human shields and, to the shock of Nordic truce monitors, has vowed to push them out of areas they control under the terms of a tattered 2002 ceasefire pact, which still holds on paper.

The rebels say the civilians are fleeing because of army artillery shells that have hit refugee camps and killed dozens. They deny they have held civilians against their will as some witnesses have said.

"The flushing-out plan ... is not about flushing out the LTTE, it's about displacing all Tamils," Tiger military spokesman Rasaiah Ilanthiraiyan told Reuters by telephone from the rebels' northern stronghold. "It has been happening since independence."