COLOMBO, Oct 14: Fighting in northern Sri Lanka heightened on Tuesday as government troops neared its main target, the LTTE’s headquarters in Killinochchi, killing at least 40 rebels, military officials said on Tuesday. Sporadic fighting also took place in the rebel held Mullaittivu area as well as government controlled districts of Jaffna and Vavuniya, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nannayakkara said.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has declared that more than 220,000 people had been displaced by the fighting, expressing concern for civilians stuck without shelter as seasonal monsoons begin in the area.

The Red Cross in a statement stated that a large numbers of civilians are leaving behind their belongings in desperation to escape to safer areas. “Large numbers of people are still fleeing’” Kilinochchi district, often leaving their belongings behind, the ICRC said on its website.

Anthony Dalziel, deputy head of the ICRC’s delegation in Sri Lanka, said in a statement that food, shelter, clean water, sanitation and, above all, security remain the most urgent concerns for tens of thousands of displaced civilians living in LTTE-controlled areas in the north.

Separately the military website said 39 men, women and children in guerilla controlled braved the LTTE obstacles and restrictions to reach government troops by boat on Tuesday.