Thousands of Sri Lanka refugees flee rebel-held area

COLOMBO, Jan 19 (Reuters) More than 10,000 Sri Lankan refugees are fleeing Tamil Tiger-held territory in the island's east, aid workers said today. Analysts said this meant a military showdown for control of the area was imminent.

Some on foot, others in tractors, the refugees left the rebel-held town of Vakarai on the northwest coast at dawn and were heading south towards government-held territory a few miles away. Sporadic artillery fire continued.

''Some of the people are making their way down the coast, others are coming through jungle in vehicles,'' Selvaraj Jeyaraj, project coordinator for the Italian Red Cross, told Reuters by telephone from the eastern district of Batticaloa.

''We are talking about 12,000 internally displaced, more or less,'' he added. The United Nations confirmed the exodus.

Around 20,000-25,000 refugees had already fled Vakarai in recent weeks, and analysts said Friday's exodus meant a military showdown was imminent.

Vakarai is in the middle of a 12-mile (20-km) long pocket of rebel-held territory, around 150 miles (240 km) northeast of Colombo, which the military surrounded after capturing rebel terrain in a series of battles in recent months and have vowed to capture.

REUTERS SSC HS1155