COLOMBO (Reuters) Sri Lankan soldiers battled into the last redoubt of the Tamil Tigers on Tuesday, and an exodus of people trapped by the rebels in the coastal strip hit 52000, the military said. The operation gathered speed after the military's noon (0630 GMT) deadline for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to surrender passed without any word from the separatists, in what appears to be the final act in Asia's longest-running war. The LTTE hours later vowed no surrender despite being massively outgunned by a military built up to wipe them out. "LTTE will never surrender and we will fight and we have the confidence that we will win with the help of the Tamil people," Seevaratnam Puleedevan, secretary-general of the LTTE peace secretariat, told Reuters by telephone. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned the situation was "nothing short of catastrophic" and urged both sides to prevent further mass casualties among civilians, saying hundreds had been killed in the past 48 hours. The neutral agency did not assign blame to either side. Sri Lanka's military, in what it dubbed the world's largest hostage rescue operation, moved in to keep the stream of people moving and give troops a clear shot at the LTTE and its elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran. "The number of people is up to 52000 and we have reached the beach," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, indicating troops had cut the Tiger's last remaining area in half. He denied civilians ...
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