Sri Lanka Forces Push Toward Rebel Headquarters in North
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Sydney, Australia — Sri Lankan security forces backed by warplanes and helicopters pressed toward the Tamil Tigers’s headquarters in the north, the Defense Ministry said, as the military tries to destroy the last bases of the rebel group.
Mi-24 helicopters attacked bunkers near Akkarayankulam, about 12 miles from Kilinochchi, late Wednesday, an Air Force spokesman, Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara, said. Some 25 members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and four soldiers died in fighting. Yesterday, the navy sunk 10 Tamil Tiger boats and killed at least 25 rebels in a sea battle off the northwestern coast, the Associated Press reported.
Troops are driving into Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, the last districts held by the Tamil Tigers in the northern Wanni region, as President Rajapaksa’s government moves to end the LTTE’s 25-year campaign for a separate Tamil homeland.
Sri Lanka’s army blocked 15 lorries from delivering humanitarian supplies to internally displaced people in the Kilinochchi district Wednesday, TamilNet reported. The delay will affect thousands of civilians as intensified fighting forces people from their homes, according to the report.
Helicopter gun ships targeted LTTE fighters withdrawing northeast of Akkarayankulam, the scene of fighting all week, the Defense Ministry said on its Web site. Air force jets attacked an LTTE artillery post west of Vannarikkulam and another northwest of Akkarayankulam, it said.
The army will capture Kilinochchi, Rajapaksa told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association earlier this week, although the fall of the LTTE headquarters will take some time, he said.
Sri Lankan warplanes hit a settlement when they bombed a site about 3 kilometers east of Kilinochchi early Wednesday, TamilNet said, citing local residents. The Defense Ministry had said the target was a base used by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. A 14-year-old boy and a father of three were wounded in the attack, according to TamilNet.
The target area was “identified as a secret LTTE hideout,” the Defense Ministry said after the raid. “This is a site most frequented by the terror chief.”
Mr. Rajapaksa said the government wants to capture Mr. Prabhakaran alive and punish him under the country’s laws. The LTTE leader appeared at a ceremony last week for 10 members of the Black Tigers unit that is responsible for the group’s suicide attacks. They were killed in an assault on a military base at Vavuniya on September 9, according to TamilNet.
