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More precision raids in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Heavy build-up of LTTE activities

COLOMBO: At least eight Tamil Tiger cadre were killed in air raids on "identified targets" by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in the Batticaloa district on Tuesday.

A Defence Ministry statement said the precision raids continued on an identified LTTE gathering in the un-cleared patches in Narakamulla General area at 10.15a.m.

The air sorties followed information of a heavy build up of terrorist activities, said air force spokesperson, Group Captain Ajantha De Silva.

He said terrorist activities in the general area Narakamulla had intensified after the death of the LTTE cadre including a leader of the Batticaloa intelligence unit.

The statement said the air strikes were conducted as a defensive measure to smother potential threat to Batticaloa and Vavunathivu, main supply routes (MSR). It said intercepted LTTE communication had revealed that more than 12 Tigers died.

Determined

Meanwhile a senior official of the Defence Ministry told foreign correspondents here that Rajapaksa Government was convinced that there could be neither peace nor development without defeating the Tigers militarily.

"We are determined to destroy the LTTE military infrastructure wherever it existed. For over 20 years, the organisation has been allowed to grow due to lack of political will on the part of successive governments. We are confident of annihilating the Tigers' military capabilities in the next two to three years," he said to a pointed question.

The official said the strategy was to clear the east from the clutches of the Tigers and than move towards the north. "Our strategy of ousting the LTTE from the east has been fairly successful so far. We do not agree with the thesis that it is an un-winnable war."

The Defence Ministry argued that it was foolish on the part of any one to argue that the war on terrorism could not be won. The official wondered why the U.S. and its allies had committed their troops in different parts of the globe in the war against terrorism.

The official made light of the role of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and remarked that for them a posting here was no more than a vacation.

The official claimed that the Government had shared evidence of the war preparedness of the Tigers with India and Pakistan for a major military offensive it launched in the east and elsewhere. The official dubbed charges of human rights violations a Tiger orchestrated propaganda and said the record of the armed forces was 100 times better than any army in the world.

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