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Sri Lanka steps up airstrikes after capturing rebel town
 Sri Lanka stepped up air attacks against suspected rebel targets in the island's north Sunday, a day after ground troops re-captured a highly strategic town, the defence ministry said.Mi-24 helicopter gun ships and fighter jets were deployed to pound defence lines of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the Jaffna peninsula and on the mainland, the defence ministry said. "Sri Lanka air force has launched a series of air strikes in support of ground troops in the Muhamalai area," the ministry said in a statement. The attacks came a day after Sri Lanka's president asked Tamil Tiger rebels to surrender after troops said they had re-taken the town of Pooneryn from the separatist guerrillas following months of heavy fighting. President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation that security forces took Pooneryn and the main northwestern coastal A-32 route on Saturday morning. The town was taken by troops after several failed attempts during 15 years of Tiger occupation. Military officials said the fall of Pooneryn was a severe blow to the Tigers who are defending their main de facto capital of Kilinochchi, further southeast, amid a multi-pronged military thrust. "Despite all their efforts, they failed in their bid to hold Pooneryn," the Sunday Times defence analyst Iqbal Athas said. "That it was a humiliating defeat for the guerrillas came from radio intercepts from the battle field." The fall of Pooneryn shrank Tiger territory by about half and prevented the rebels from using the north-western seaboard to smuggle weapons and other supplies by boat from neighbouring India, military officials said. They said the bigger advantage for the military was the removal of Tiger artillery guns at Pooneryn, which had been used to hit the main Palaly airbase in the Jaffna peninsula and disrupted regular military flights. The military has not given details of losses suffered by either side in the battle for Pooneryn, but Athas said both sides had suffered "very heavy casualties" in the fighting. With the fall of Pooneryn, the military has taken the northwestern seaboard of the island and is poised to make a final push for Kilinochchi, defence officials said. There had been no comment from the Tigers on the latest military action, but Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is due to make an annual speech on November 27 setting out his plans for the next year. The Tigers commemorate their war dead during a "Heroes' week" starting November 21. Last month, the military stopped releasing its own losses in daily bulletins, saying it would hinder operations. However, official figures tabled in parliament show that 1,269 troops were killed in the first 10 months of this year. The military says it killed more than 7,500 Tiger rebels during the same period. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-17 |
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