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COLOMBO: Sri Lankan troops have cornered the Tamil Tigers in their northeastern jungle hideout of Mullaittivu and the guerrillas have nowhere left to run except into the Indian Ocean, the army chief said.
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said his forces had surrounded the district of Mullaittivu, the last urban bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaving them a 40-kilometre (25-mile) stretch of coastline.
"We have surrounded them from all sides and the only option for them is to jump into the sea because they still have 40 kilometres of coastline," Fonseka told reporters late Saturday.
Fonseka said he believed Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran may already have escaped the country by sea. "We don't know if he is still there. He may have already fled in a boat," Fonseka said.
Government troops had killed at least 30 Tamil Tiger guerrillas in heavy fighting near the rebels' remaining jungle hideouts on Saturday, Fonseka said.
He said fighting had erupted in Mullaittivu district on Saturday when the LTTE resisted an army advance.
"Troops found 30 bodies of terrorists," Fonseka said, adding that troops had found the bodies of more than 100 rebels killed so far this month. "Tiger casualties are increasing."
He said troops had advanced 17 kilometres (10.6 miles) into rebel-held Mullaittivu area in the past 17 days and that rebel resistance was crumbling faster than the military had anticipated.
The ongoing massive assault by Sri Lankan troops has left the Tigers cornered in their military stronghold of Mullaittivu after the fall of their political capital of Kilinochchi earlier this month.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the Tamils launched their struggle for a separate homeland in 1972 in the Sinhalese-majority island.
- AFP/yt
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