Nearly 800 flee Sri Lanka's war zone - military

Colombo: Sri Lanka's ongoing war with Tamil Tiger rebels has forced nearly 800 civilians to flee in the last day, the military said on Wednesday.

Troops are closing in on Tiger strongholds, marching to the port of Mullaittivu across a small rebel-held area, where aid groups say more than 200,000 people are trapped in an area of no more than 330 square km.

"In the last 24 hours, 796 people have come out of the war zone," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The refugees have been given basic facilities and food, and will either be sent to the army-held Jaffna Peninsula or south to Vavuniya, site of the army's rear headquarters for the war.

Soldiers also seized three rebels and found three decomposed guerilla bodies, he said.