Sri Lankan wounded come in from battered town

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 3 (Reuters) Casualties from fighting between Sri Lanka's military and Tamil Tiger rebels trickled into hospital today and told of heavy shelling and close-quarters fighting.

So far, a few dozen wounded, mainly military, have been taken by the Navy to the northeast port of Trincomalee from the government-held town of Mutur, scene of fierce fighting since yesterday.

A few wounded civilians, most of them women and children, were also taken.

''The shells were falling in the town from both sides,'' said 53-year-old labourer Mohamed Ali Pittchikutti, shaking as his 11-year-old son Nasim was taken into surgery after being wounded when a shell hit their house.

''I saw five or six people dead. It's very bad. You can't go out in the streets. We fled to the beach.'' As more and more wounded were brought to the hospital, some unconscious but most lying silent but awake, the sound of government artillery and rockets being fired into the battlefield shook the wards. A wounded boy wailed in pain.

After months of tension and violence, the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have fought for two decades for an independent Tamil homeland, are on the offensive for the first time since a 2002 truce.

Neither aid workers nor truce monitors have reached the battlefield in northeast Sri Lanka, and information is sketchy. It is not clear if there is still fighting further south of Mutur, nor are there reliable casualty figures.

CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE Hospital officials say most of the casualties have blast wounds from mortar bombs, shells and possibly bombs dropped from government jets. The small hospital in Mutur was hit yesterday and the staff there are believed to have fled their posts.

''We also heard that two ambulances got caught in the crossfire, but we don't know if that is true or how many casualties there were,'' said Trincomalee hospital director P K Gnanakunalan. She said her hospital had been sent an additional surgeon and more supplies.

Aid workers say they will not be able to get into mainly Muslim Mutur with aid and food unless there is at least a two-hour ceasefire. Shops in Trincomalee are closed in protest at the violence.

The army says rebel fighters are going from house to house and trying to withdraw to their territory. Aid workers say civilians are hiding in schools, colleges and churches. Those involved in the fighting say it has been close and heavy.

''It began with the LTTE attacking with mortars, hand grenades, RPGs and exploding mines,'' said Tasim Mohamed Rinoos, a 26-year-old member of the police-run Home Guard, evacuated from Mutur with a mortar wound to his face.

''At one time, we were within 20-25 metres of the LTTE. I think they had planned this for a long time.'' REUTERS DKB VV1502