I spent a bunch of time in Sri Lanka during the civil war, had some dicey experiences with bombs on the roadway to Colombo city and an incident where the power was cut at the airport due to an "air raid" by the rebels in some homemade aircraft. The reality is you can lay pretty low and avoid the city entirely by staying near the airport. Many people during that time period would do quick turns. That said, what is going on now is really sad and reflects years of simmering tension. It's not clear how much worse this could get in the coming weeks...