Colombo - Unrelenting battles between Tamil rebels and Sri Lankan troops killed at least 52 civilians over the past day and cluster munitions were fired Wednesday just outside a hospital that has been battered by artillery strikes, the UN said.

Amputee lying on a bed at a hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Sri Lanka. The UN said cluster bombs were used just outside the hospital. (Photo: AP)

    After days of shelling sent patients fleeing the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, the Red Cross evacuated the staff and wounded Wednesday, effectively closing the last remaining medical facility in the war zone, the aid group said.

    The fighting occurred as the country marked its 61st Independence Day with a grand military parade and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's declaration that the military stands on the verge of crushing the rebels and ending the civil war.

    The fighting is concentrated in a sliver of coastal land of about 85 square kilometres, where an estimated 250,000 Tamil civilians are trapped along with the last of the Tamil Tigers, who appear on the verge of defeat after a 25-year war for a separate homeland for the country's minority Tamils. About 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

    United Nations spokesman Gordon Weiss told The Associated Press that 52 civilians were killed and 80 wounded in fighting Tuesday inside and outside a government-designated safe zone, an area of rebel territory that it had pledged not to strike.

    In a joint statement, the U.S. and British governments called on both sides to agree to a temporary cease-fire to allow the civilians and wounded to leave the conflict area and to give humanitarian agencies access to the war zone. Sri Lanka barred nearly all aid groups from the area last year.

    Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, estimated last week that more than 300 civilians had been killed in the recent fighting, something the government denied. Dr. Varatharajah has not updated his estimate.

    Mr. Weiss said 15 UN staffers and 81 family members who were trapped near the hospital fled en masse Wednesday after the area was pounded for more than 16 hours by artillery fire, including cluster munitions. The Tamil Tigers tried to take UN vehicles during the evacuation but backed off when the staff resisted, Mr. Weiss said.

    Sarasi Wijeratne, the spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the aid group evacuated the hospital Wednesday.

    "The last remaining medical facility inside the Vanni pocket (war zone) has been effectively closed," Mr. Weiss said.

    The Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital has been hit continuously by a barrage of artillery since Sunday, leaving at least 12 people dead.

    The artillery barrage was the first public accusation of cluster munitions use in the conflict since a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire broke down in 2006, though Mr. Weiss said they had been used at least once before in recent weeks.

    Cluster munitions are controversial because of their ability to cause damage over a wide area. Also, many of their bomblets do not explode immediately and thus continue to pose a danger to civilians long after fighting ends.

    Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara denied firing them, saying "We don't have the facility to fire cluster munitions. We don't have these weapons."

    Mr. Weiss said the UN accepted the government's assurance that they did not have the weapons.

    The rebels were not available for comment because most communication to the war zone has been cut.

    Mr. Weiss said the hospital area was also hit over the past day by air strikes, likely launched by the government because the Tamil Tigers have no air capability left.

    As the fighting neared its conclusion, Sri Lanka held a lavish parade to mark its independence from Britain 61 years ago.

    Addressing the gathering, Mr. Rajapaksa said government troops have defeated the "cowardly forces of terror that had wrapped our entire nation in fear," despite the sophisticated Tamil Tiger military machine and its suicide squad.

    In recent months, Sri Lankan troops have routed the rebels from most areas they had controlled out in the north and the east. The rebels complain that ethnic Tamils have suffered years of marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.

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