By Peter Apps

PALATHOPPUR, Sri Lanka, Aug 4 (Reuters). Artillery fire thunders in the background as thousands of Sri Lankan Muslims fleeing an eastern war-torn town arrive at this village by bus, tractors, motorcycles and on foot.

The Red Cross estimates some 20,000-30,000 people fled south from Mutur on Friday, leaving behind them a town devastated by days of fighting between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

"We had to leave", said 25-year-old water board employee M.A. Jevahir, trying to keep an eye on his family amongst the thousands taking shelter under trees and in abandoned buildings.

"We couldn't stay any longer. But this place does not feel safe either", he said.

Women cried and wailed, while some men stoically clutched the Koran. People, some obviously dehydrated after walking for long, rushed to a truck bringing water.

Most simply wanted to move away from the violence.

Northeast Sri Lanka is home to a volatile mix of Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils. Some residents of mostly Muslim Mutur said Tamil residents had been told by the LTTE to leave weeks ago.

"The LTTE want to divide the country", shouted Abdul Aziz Raheed, pointing towards rebel territory. "The Tamils have there own place but this is our land. They want us gone. They have done this before, in Jaffna in 1991".

The LTTE, which has fought for two decades for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east, evicted the Muslim population of the northern Jaffna peninsula in the mid-1990s. Muslims in eastern Sri Lanka have always feared a repeat.

ETHNIC FAULT LINES

Help in the village is hampered by ongoing fighting and ethnic tension. The windows on a Red Cross vehicle were smashed by a mob of majority Sinhalese, hardliners among whom accuse international aid workers of only helping Tamils.

Fighting is continuing both around Mutur and the LTTE-held water sluice gate that sparked the confrontation last month when irrigation was turned off to some 50,000 farmers in government territory. Fields in the area are now dry and crops stunted.

Elsewhere, soldiers just back from the frontline sit under trees or slump on their rucksacks, grime and exhaustion on their faces.

Other soldiers burn scrubland near the main roads to reduce the risk of LTTE ambushes while Russian-built MI-24 attack helicopters of the Sri Lanka Air Force s fly low towards the battlefield.

Most of the explosions in the background seem to be far away, but many of the displaced screamed and ran for cover after shells or mortar bombs fell nearer, perhaps only two or three miles north, where the roads are still clogged with people.

Some of the displaced said shells fell near them as they walked out of the ruined town. While none of the refugees saw anyone killed during the mass evacuation, some aid workers said there were reports of up to 20 dead.

There were some in the crowd who were wounded by explosions in Mutur. An ambulance carried two babies, one with blast wounds to the face.

"This is total chaos", said one Sri Lankan staff of an international aid group, who lived in Mutur. "No-one is in charge here. Excuse me, I must go and find my family".

Residents in the town of Muttur say the rebels have taken control of key areas in the centre, including the jetty.

Muttur is a predominantly Muslim town and thousands have taken shelter in mosques and school buildings, local people told the BBC's Tamil service.

The fighting comes amid an army offensive in Trincomalee district.

Despite the upsurge in fighting both sides still say they are acting defensively and therefore within the conditions of a 2002 ceasefire. Privately both also say they do not consider the recent violence to be the beginning of a full scale war.

Camps attacked

Residents of Muttur told the BBC that the army had withdrawn from the town centre. Earlier the government said on its website that it was "in control" of the town but that "mortar fire is still happening".

It said rebels tried to capture the jetty in Muttur as 0130 local time. "The navy repulsed this attempt".

The Tigers also launched attacks on four camps south and east of Muttur town.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said they had made some progress. He told the BBC they were attacking "to protect our people from indiscriminate shelling" from the army.

The defence ministry said it had repulsed the attacks on the army camps.

Both sides have given widely differing accounts of casualties from Wednesday's fighting. The government says 40 rebels had been killed in the fighting around the army camps - there is no independent verification of the claims.

The BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan says the fighting is escalating and it appears that the Tigers' counter attacks have surprised the military.

Water dispute

The latest fighting in Trincomalee district started eight days ago when the air force began bombing Tamil Tiger positions.

The government says the Tigers are stopping water in areas they control on the Maavilaru waterway from reaching tens of thousands of civilians in government controlled areas.

The Tigers say local people have closed a sluice gate in a dispute with the government over water supply improvements.

At least 23 soldiers have been killed since the army launched the offensive to the south of Trincomalee port. The Tigers say they have lost 25 fighters before Wednesday's fighting.

Up to 3,000 troops are involved in the efforts to gain control of the Maavilaru waterway, reports say.

'Withdrawn'

The government has issued a statement saying it is committed to the ceasefire agreement - which analysts say lies in tatters.

"The government reaffirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement", the statement said.

The government would continue its offensive against the rebels as long as they continued "acts of terrorism and violence", the statement added.

On Tuesday, the army said a ship - carrying more than 850 soldiers - came under attack from mortar and artillery fire as it was sailing from the northern Jaffna peninsula to the port of Trincomalee.

Four navy personnel had been killed in rebel mortar and artillery attacks following the attack on the ship, the army said.

The latest violence comes on the fourth day of a military ground offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.

The BBC Colombo correspondent says that soldiers are trying to fight on heavily-mined land and that the offensive is going to be a difficult and slow process.

But the government is adamant they will resolve the issue militarily.

The Tigers have described the offensive as an act of war. One Tiger leader said that the country's 2002 ceasefire was now null and void.

EU dispute

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has described the fighting as a "low-intensity war" and has warned that a full scale-war would be "disastrous" for both sides.

Sweden said on Tuesday it would pull out its staff from the SLMM by 1 September because of a lack of security guarantees from the Tigers.

The move follows similar announcements by Finland and Denmark. The Nordic-run SLMM was established to monitor the ceasefire between the government and the Tigers.

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