|
Sri Lankan military captures Tamil Tiger stronghold
 Sri Lankan troops have driven Tamil Tiger fighters from their last stronghold in the islands east, the military said on Wednesday, but the rebels vowed to carry on with a guerrilla-style war. The capture of a jungle area called Thoppigala in the eastern district of Batticaloa comes after the military captured vast swathes of terrain from the Tigers in the east this year. But while the military has had the upper hand in recent months, the Tigers military machine is still intact in the north where they run a de facto state, and analysts see no clear winner on the horizon. We have reached Thoppigala and captured Thoppigala and now there are no LTTE (Tiger) holdings, said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. In and around Thoppigala there are small pockets and camps which we are clearing. West of Thoppiala we have to clear but the Thoppigala is captured. Thoppigala has been in Tiger hands since the mid-1990s. The military says it has killed nearly 450 rebel fighters in the Thoppigala area since February and that around 20 of its men have been killed. The Tigers say 60 of their guerrillas have been killed and believe they have killed three or four times that number of troops. Analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own. Yeah, the government controls a very large part of the east at the moment. We still operate there, as we have operated for the past 25 years, Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan told reporters in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi. We will adopt every possible mode, tactic and tool to engage the enemy, he added. If they want to come to the north, let them come and see what happens. The Tigers control a large section of the islands far north and are fighting for an independent state in the north and east. The government has vowed to continue with its drive to destroy all Tiger military assets, and analysts say the focus of fighting is now shifting to the far north. Ilanthiraiyan said the Tigers would use all of their arsenal - which includes suicide bombers and light aircraft that they smuggled into the country in pieces and reassembled - to battle on. If they come into our territory (in the north), they will find stiff resistance from our people who are prepared to face any kind of threat. And we will take all measures to prevent those forces destroying our homeland and killing our people. Nordic monitors question role: Nordic peace monitors in Sri Lanka are wondering whether to stay put even though there is no real truce to oversee, or abandon ship with the risk that violence could worsen. For the time being, the Norwegian-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) has decided to remain - and even double its foreign staff to 60 - despite the fact that its job currently consists of counting bodies, bombs and bullets. Posted by: Fred 2007-07-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=193226 |