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Sri Lankan army claims breakthrough in ethnic war
Agence France Presse - January 6, 2009
Lakruwan Wanniarachchi, Kilinochchi – Sri Lanka's army said it was moving in on the jungle stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels, in a final assault aimed at ending the longest-running ethnic war in Asia.
Flush with confidence after retaking the Tigers' main city two days ago, the army vowed to capture rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as troops pushed deeper into northern territory that has long been under the control of the guerillas.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a New Year's address that 2009 would be the year of "heroic victory" over the Tigers, who have been waging war since 1972 to establish an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils.
Troops captured Kilinochchi, the de facto capital of the rebel state on Friday, and the general leading the assault said his forces were now advancing on Mullaittivu, their last major centre of control.
"We are taking the offensive to the Mullaittivu jungles where Prabhakaran is hiding," Major General Jagath Dias told reporters flown into Kilinochchi for a short and carefully supervised visit on Sunday. "We will hunt him down."
Journalists found a desolate town in which most of the buildings had been badly damaged or reduced to rubble by months of bombardment. The only remaining residents appeared to be a group of 22 Tamil women, children and older men sheltering at the town's defunct hospital.
"We were ordered by the Tigers to leave but our family did not want to go," a 17-year-old girl named Komalasingham Thurasiha said. "We fled to the jungles and stayed there for a few days before returning today."
Gunfire and artillery could be heard nearby during the press visit, but military officers said it was safe to travel within the town as all Tiger snipers had been driven away.
The rebels have a record for hitting back, and hours after losing Kilinochchi a Tamil suicide bomber in the capital Colombo killed two people and wounded 36.
Six months after a major strategic loss in 1995, the rebels overran an army base and killed 1200 soldiers.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the conflict began but Rajapakse's Government pulled out of an on-again, off-again ceasefire last year and launched a new campaign to crush the Tigers once and for all.
Mr Prabhakaran said in his own address in November that the rebels, one of the world's most fearless and effective guerilla groups, would fight on. "No sane voice is being raised either to abandon war or to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict," he said.
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