Sri Lanka’s military has vowed to go “all out” to target Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran during air strikes on rebel positions, a state-run newspaper reported Sunday.Air Force chief Roshan Goonatilleke said he was confident of finding the elusive leader who is believed to be holed up in the island’s north where he runs a mini-state. The comments, in the Sunday Observer newspaper, come less than two weeks after a key rebel aide was killed in a government air strike. “I do not think it is that difficult for us to get at him now,” Goonatilleke told the newspaper under the headline: “Sri Lanka air force goes all out for Prabhakaran - Commander.”
“We will find him somehow soon. We need a great deal of patience.” Sri Lankan war planes bombed a Tamil Tiger location and killed political wing leader SP Thamilselvan and six others on November 2 as part of a campaign to re-capture territory from the rebels. Thamilselvan was regarded as the public face of the separatist group and the point-man for Norwegian peace brokers and and other international diplomats involved in the island’s faltering peace efforts.