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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's decades-old war against Tamil Tiger rebels is close to being completed, the island's army chief was quoted as saying Tuesday as the military reported further gains in the rebel-held north.
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said the military had killed thousands of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters in the past two-and-a-half years.
"Over 80 per cent of the war against the LTTE has been completed after regaining 80 per cent of the areas under them and killing over 12,000 of their cadres," the state-run Daily News quoted Fonseka as saying.
Government forces are currently locked in a major offensive against the Tigers to capture the rebel political capital of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres (206 miles) north of Colombo.
The defence ministry said its forces were overcoming sporadic resistance from the LTTE and were closing in on the strategically important town of Pooneryn.
It said they wanted to open a new land route to the northern peninsula of Jaffna, which has only been reachable by sea and air since it was taken from the rebels by government troops in 1995.
"The Task Force 1 is now on an accelerated march towards Pooneryn, crushing remaining terrorist footholds on the northwestern coast," the ministry said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of people have died on both sides since 1972, when the LTTE launched its campaign to carve out an independent state in the Sinhalese-majority island of 20 million people.
- AFP/yt
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