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| Sri Lanka |
| Tamil Tigers still cordoned off |
| 2009-04-24 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Tamil Tiger rebels encircled in a tiny strip of land by Sri Lankan troops are still putting up stiff resistance despite calls for their surrender, the military said yesterday. The army said the guerrillas controlled a mere 10-12 square kilometres (around four square miles) of territory on the northeast coast, where thousands of civilians are still trapped by the fighting. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the island's military spokesman, said the Tigers were using artillery and tanks. "There are sporadic clashes but our priority is to get the civilians out. We can finish them off very quickly after the civilians get out of the way," he said. "We can claim we have completely defeated the Tigers when we have captured the remaining area," he said. The defence ministry, meanwhile, said guerrilla resistance was "dwindling." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The news agencies keep talking about "jungle", but there isn't any jungle where the Tamils are holed up. They're on a narrow strip of land, less than a mile wide, that is bordered on one side by the ocean and the other by one of several lagoons. There are houses and small fields all along the peninsula, and three bridges that link the peninsula with the mainland - one at the lower end that links the peninsula with Mullaitivu to the south, and two that link the peninsula to the mainland across the lagoon. There are the equivalent of about eight divisions surrounding the Tamils, and an ever-shrinking piece of ground for them to stand upon. You can't fire artillery from six feet of water - it just doesn't work. It looks very likely that the Tigers are about to be defanged. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-04-24 15:11 |