Thousands flee fighting in east Sri Lanka (Simon Gardner)

  By Simon Gardner

  COLOMBO, March 8 (Reuters) -- Thousands of civilians are fleeing Tamil Tiger-held territory in east Sri Lanka as troops and rebels battle with artillery and mortar bombs, the two sides said Thursday, amid a rebel warning of a bloodbath.

  Nearly 13,700 civilians have fled rebel areas in the eastern district of Batticaloa in the past fortnight, 3,800 of those alone on Wednesday. Both the Tigers and military said thousands more were fleeing  Thursday.

  "Civilians are worried they will be held as human shields like earlier and are fleeing the area," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. "The security forces' plan is to liberate civilians from the Tigers and neutralise rebel gun positions that pose a direct threat to troops in Batticaloa," he added.

  The military has already captured a large coastal swathe of territory in recent months that the Tigers held under the terms of a now tattered 2002 ceasefire pact, forcing the rebels to flee to jungles further inland or to their northern base by sea.

 However troops had not yet begun a push to clear the Tigers from a jungle area called Thoppigala around 25 miles (40 km) west of Batticaloa, where rebel fighters have regrouped and which analysts say will be the next target of a military offensive.