COLOMBO, March 25: Thousands of Tamil civilians were on the run in northern Sri Lanka on Sunday as troops and Tiger rebels traded artillery fire across a de facto border, with both sides claiming heavy casualties.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said about 2,000 men, women and children fled their homes in the district of Mannar, where heavy fighting has raged since Thursday.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead five civilians -- three in the north and two in the east -- on Sunday afternoon, police said, adding the victims were villagers who had supported the ruling party government.

One government soldier was killed and three more wounded in Mannar district in the latest shelling, the defence ministry said Sunday. It said troops retaliated in kind and inflicted unspecified casualties on the guerillas.

The ministry estimated that at least 49 Tiger rebels were killed in the latest fighting. The military placed its own losses at 10 dead and 46 seriously wounded, with another 45 listed as minor casualties.

The LTTE said it lost 13 combatants and claimed to have killed 60 government troops. Both sides are known to overestimate losses suffered by the other.—AFP