COLOMBO: Sri Lankan soldiers killed 17 Tamil Tiger separatists in fighting to clear a road that would give the military access to remaining rebel territory where thousands of civilians are trapped, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday. More than 2,800 civilians were able to flee the war zone on Saturday, military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said. The rebels, who once controlled a de facto state in parts of the country’s north and east, have retreated to a tiny slice of land that the government had earlier declared a “no-fire zone” for civilians fleeing the fighting in the island’s nation’s civil war. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 civilians are trapped in the area, which measures only 20 square km. Human rights groups have accused the rebels of using the civilians as human shields.