Lankan Trops Attacking Tamil Tigers

The dispute between Srilankan government and Tamil tigers seems a never ending issue. SriLankan soldiers battled into the last redoubt of the rebel Tamil Tigers as the exodus of people fleeing the war zone surpassed 62,000.The International Committee of the Red Cross 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.

Senior U.S. diplomat Sri Lanka to allow the international community to monitor what was happening and assure help for trapped civilians. The 26-year-old conflict is at a decisive point and we see the potential for major developments within the next 48 hours, Owen told reporters, urging restraint on all sides.The operation gathered speed after the military's noon deadline for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to surrender passed without any word from the separatists, in what appears to be the final act in Asia's longest-running war.

The LTTE hours later vowed no surrender, despite being massively outgunned by a military built up to wipe them out and finish a conflict that has percolated since the early 1970s but erupted into full-blown civil war in 1983. LTTE will never surrender and we will fight and we have the confidence that we will win with the help of the Tamil people.

Sri Lanka's military, in what it dubbed the world's largest hostage rescue operation, went in to keep the stream of people moving and give troops a clear shot at the LTTE and its elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran. So far 62,600 people have come out and still they are coming. The Tigers' Puleedevan said Prabhakaran, the guerrilla who since the 1970s has single-mindedly led a fight for a separate nation for Tamils, was directing the fight in what the army set up as a no-fire zone, but is now a last battleground.