COLOMBO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- At least two civilians were killed while two more were injured when the Tamil Tiger rebels fired at them on Saturday to prevent them from fleeing the rebel held area in northern Sri Lanka, said the military.

    Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said they were fired at when they fled the last stronghold of the rebels in the Mullaittivu district and tried to depart for Manmunai in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have faced worldwide condemnation for using Tamil civilians as human shields in the current military campaign.

    Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Saturday that 440 more sick and wounded civilians and their relatives were ferried from Mullaittivu district's Puttumatalan area to the eastern port of Trincomalee by ship on Friday night.

    The ICRC has ferried nearly 4,000 patients and their relatives since February.

    Both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE have been urged by the international community to guarantee the safety of civilians trapped in the war zone.

    The LTTE, which led an three-decade-old rebellion to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community in the north and east, lost the Eastern Province in 2007 and since the beginning of this year have lost all its main locations in the north to the advancing troops.

    More than 70,000 people have died in one of the world's longestrunning armed insurgencies.