COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Thousands of civilians under rebel fire waded across a lagoon yesterday to escape Sri Lanka's war zone, where government forces have surrounded Tamil Tiger separatists for possibly the final battle of a 25-year conflict, the military and a United Nations official said.
The military said aerial surveillance footage confirmed an exodus of about 5,000 people from a tiny, sandy coastal strip, where the United States and others say the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are holding thousands by force.
Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers brushed off demands from the US Security Council and President Obama to take steps to protect the civilians, who are stuck between two foes who are determined to fight to the end of a war that began in 1983.
Piling on more pressure, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to dissuade the International Monetary Fund from considering a $1.9 billion loan for Sri Lanka.
"We think it is not an appropriate time to consider that until there is a resolution of this conflict, and that is what we are focused on," Clinton told reporters in Washington.
But the increased pressure from the United Nations and Washington appeared to have come too late to stop an exodus that the military has been counting on to clear the way for an onslaught of overwhelming force against the much smaller rebel group.
"Already, 2,000 civilians have crossed the lagoon," military spokesman Brigadier General Udaya Nanayakkara said. "There is a large number of people crossing, and the rebels fired at them. Four people were killed, and 14 were wounded."
By evening there were 2,700 people checked and cleared and at least another 1,000 waiting, although darkness had made it difficult to tell, Nanayakkara said.
Earlier the United Nations' acting representative for Sri Lanka, Amin Awad, told Reuters that local sources in the combat zone said up to 6,000 had escaped or were attempting to do so.
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