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Sri Lanka troops advance north

COLOMBO: Amid claims by the military that at least 35 cadres of the LTTE were killed as troops advanced into the areas under the control of Tigers in the north, Sri Lanka Army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka has forecast the end of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran by June 2008. In an interview with the state run English weekly, Sunday Observer Lt. Gen. Fonseka claimed that the security forces have occupied the LTTE’s Forward Defence Lines and surrounded the Wanni LTTE bases “from all directions.”

It is for the first time since the hostilities escalated between the forces and the LTTE in July 2006 that the army chief has made such a categorical assertion. For weeks now, the LTTE’s response to the military claims on the ground situation in the north has been very low-key. With the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) rendered virtually ineffective in the face of the undeclared intensified war, there is no mechanism for an independent verification of the claims and counter-claims.

The army chief told the weekly that the LTTE could not prevent losing their remaining 3,000 cadres and there is “no assurance” that Prabakaran would survive for the next six months as the air force plans to attack all the LTTE bases.

Lt. Gen. Fonseka maintained that he is “highly satisfied over the successes against the terrorists in the outgoing year” and said that the prime target of the military was to destroy the LTTE’s presence in the north “completely.”

“The damage to the LTTE in Wanni is high and their major camps have already fallen. Now the outfit is facing a severe shortage of man power.”

Separately, the military said on Sunday that at least 33 terrorists were killed and 38 wounded when security forces made “decisive inroads towards non-liberated Parappakandal area.”

In another incident, two cadres of the LTTE were killed and three wounded when troops “successfully retaliated against” an LTTE mortar attack at general area north of Ethawetunuwewa, Welioya.

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