Sri Lankan troops seize rebel town
The army said the separatist war that began a quarter-century ago was "95 percent" over.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lankan forces captured the Tamil Tigers' last major stronghold yesterday, confining the rebels to a narrow slice of jungle and ending their decade-long domination of the country's north.
The army's commander, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, said the ethnic separatist war that has plagued this Indian Ocean island nation since 1983 was "95 percent" over.
But analysts warned that it was simply shifting from a conventional fight between two armies to a guerrilla war likely to be fought among the estimated 250,000 displaced civilians trapped in the northern jungles with the rebels.
In recent weeks, the army drove the rebels from their administrative capital of Kilinochchi, forced them to retreat from most of the de facto state they controlled across a wide swath of the north, and boxed them into a shrinking pocket of land.
Yesterday afternoon, troops entered the coastal town of Mullaittivu, the last major town under the rebels' control, and drove off the fighters remaining inside, the military said.
"The Sri Lankan army captured the Mullaittivu bastion completely today," Fonseka said in a speech broadcast yesterday evening on every major television channel.
Sri Lankans across the capital, Colombo, exploded in celebration, honking their horns and lighting firecrackers, as they have for all the military's recent victories.
The military made an all-out push last year into the north, where the Tamil Tigers ran an autocratic regime complete with its own police, courts and customs department.
Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella described Mullaittivu as the rebels' last bastion and main operations center. The rebels had held the town since 1996, when they overran a military camp there and killed nearly 1,000 soldiers.
Rebel officials could not be reached for comment because communications to the northern war zone have been cut. In the past, however, they expressed a willingness to return to guerrilla warfare if necessary.
It is impossible to verify the military's accounts because independent journalists are barred from the area.
Fonseka appealed for recruits to join the army and help finish the war. The government's string of victories has confined the rebels to 115 square miles in the jungle, the military said.
The rebels seek to create a separate state in the north and east for minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization under governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
A 2002 cease-fire deal fell apart amid fighting three years ago, and the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to destroy the rebel group and end the war. Backed by record budgets, the military heavily recruited troops and went on a spending spree for weapons.
The military captured insurgent-held territories in the east in 2007 and last year pushed deep into the rebels' northern heartland.
