Sri Lankan forces were pushing deep into Tamil Tiger-held territory last night, announcing the targeting of new Tiger strongholds in the north in the hope of routing the rebel group and capturing its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
A day after taking the town of Kilinochchi, the de facto capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lankan troops moved on the north-east coastal town of Mullaitivu, with air force jets bombing the main Sea Tiger base in Mullaitivu lagoon, according to defence officials in Colombo, and also on the strategically significant Elephant Pass, which fell to the LTTE in April 2000. The defence ministry said rebels were fleeing into the jungle in disarray.
Defence chiefs believe that a military victory in the long-running war may now be possible this year and they are understood to want to capture Prabhakaran alive. The LTTE leader is reported to be holed up in a bunker system in the forests around Mullaitivu.
Television pictures showed Sri Lankan army units pounding LTTE positions with heavy artillery and troops advancing through the jungle. Mi-24 helicopter gunships also carried out two bombing raids on LTTE positions in the north of the island, according to the Sri Lankan military.
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, the man leading the campaign against the militants, said the Tigers were now confined to a small area about 25 miles long and 25 miles wide along the north eastern coastal district: "It won't take a year to finish them off, to eliminate them," he said. Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse described the fall of the rebel capital as an "unparalleled victory" for the nation and warned the LTTE to abandon the fight. "I am telling the LTTE for the last time to lay down their arms and surrender."
But Prabhakaran refuses to accept that the Tigers are on the run. He was reported to have said yesterday that capturing Kilinochchi was "just a day dream" of Rajapakse's. Reports from Sri Lanka suggest Prabhakaran may be co-ordinating resistance to the offensive from an air-conditioned bunker complex 30ft below ground.
Both sides are reported to have sustained heavy casualties in the fighting and there are also believed to have been a large number of civilian casualties. The pro-LTTE Tamilnet website reported that four civilians were killed and eight injured in an air strike on a petrol station and a bus station on Friday.
An estimated 70,000 people have died in the conflict since the LTTE launched an armed struggle for a separate state in 1983.
The Sri Lankan onslaught brought crowds onto the streets of the capital Colombo to celebrate, but there was an angry reaction from Tamil Tiger sympathisers across the water in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where MDMK party general secretary Vaiko Gopalsamy warned that the LTTE was not finished. "The Tamil Tigers will bounce back just like the waves of the sea do," he said.
The Sri Lankan defence ministry said yesterday that ground forces, backed by helicopter gunships, were moving towards Mullaitivu. The government's defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the intention was to "liberate the whole northern province".
The government had previously promised to end the conflict in 2008. But retired Sri Lankan General Cyril Ranatunga said the government would ultimately have to seek a political solution alongside the military campaign. "A political solution is a must and the government must take action to protect all citizens," he said.
With the loss of its capital, the LTTE is expected to concentrate its efforts on asymmetric warfare, including suicide attacks like the one that killed at least two people in Colombo after the fall of Kilinochchi. "We will take all possible measures to avert any more terrorist attacks," said Sri Lankan military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara.