( CNN ) -- Hundreds of civilians died during weekend fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebel fighters , the United Nations reported Monday . A photo supplied by a humanitarian group on Sunday shows civilians allegedly injured in government shelling . `` Verification is , of course , the part of the problem , because humanitarian agencies are denied access to the region , '' U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said from the capital , Colombo . `` Our understanding is that very heavy fighting took place over the weekend , and there were many hundreds of civilian deaths and many , many more beyond that injured . '' The numbers provided by the United Nations pale in comparison with rebel claims . More than 3,200 civilians died from Sunday evening till Monday morning , said Lawrence Christy , the head of Tamils Rehabilitation Organization , according to the rebel Web site TamilNet . The `` Sri Lanka Army ( SLA ) has stepped up relentless barrage of shelling using all sorts of heavy weapons on the so-called safety-zone ( no-fire zone ) ... areas where more than 130,000 civilians have sought refuge , '' TamilNet said . The Sri Lankan government denied the allegations and accused the Tamils of `` taking the whole world for a ride with its well-engineered propaganda ploys , '' while turning their weapons on civilians trying to flee the combat zone . Accounts vary widely about how many have been trapped . As recently as last week , a military spokesman put the number at 10,000 to 15,000 civilians . CNN could not independently verify the accounts , because the government does not allow the news media independent access to areas where it is fighting the rebels . Government troops have closed in on rebel forces in a shrinking section of the country 's north , and civilians have been caught in crossfire . More than 196,000 people have fled the battle zone , according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs . Tamil Tigers rebels have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka 's northeast since 1983 . As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began , and the Tigers have been declared a terrorist organization by the European Union and more than 30 countries , including the United States .
U.N. : Many hundreds of civilian deaths . • U.S. and NATO forces have killed at least 10,000 civilians in Afghanistan since 2001, according to the United Nations. Pro-Tamil group accuses government of using heavy weapons on civilian areas . Sri Lankan government denies claims , accuses the Tamils of propaganda ploys .