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Sri Lanka squeezes Tigers’ territory
Colombo—Sri Lanka’s government said Thursday its troops have smashed
through a key Tamil Tiger defence line in the far north of the island,
putting fresh pressure on the rebels’ shrinking jungle mini-state.
Government troops took a near five-kilometre (three-mile) long
fortified bunker line from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
on the Jaffna peninsula after five days of fierce fighting, the
defence ministry said.
“In a continuous military thrust launched by 53 and 55 Divisions,
terrorists were unable to defend their defence line,” the statement
said, adding that Tigers suffered “scores” of losses while troops
“minimised” their casualties.
The Tigers are known to maintain fall-back positions, but the collapse
of the defences adds to the pressure they have been facing on other
fronts, including around their political capital of Kilinochchi and
coastal base of Mullaitivu.
“The army shifted its mode of operations from active defence to all
out offence in the northern theatre on Saturday (Nov 15) by running at
the LTTE’s forward defence lines” on the Jaffna peninsula, the defence
ministry said.
Jaffna is controlled by the government, but cut off from the rest of
government-held territory by the LTTE — a rebel outfit battling to
carve out a separate state in the north and east of the ethnic
Sinhalese-majority island.
Sri Lankan authorities, who pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce
with the rebels at the start of the year, have been on the march from
the south for several months.
The defence ministry said troops from Jaffna were now “heading further
southwards.”
Sri Lankan authorities have restricted access to the embattled areas
for journalists as well as for most aid workers, meaning that claims
by either side in the decades-old conflict are frequently impossible
to independently verify.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigers on the latest military
statement. Reports on the humanitarian situation in the north,
meanwhile, were dire.—AFP
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