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Kilinochchi to be captured soon: Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: The Air Force claimed it bombed LTTE targets in the north in the past 24 hours amid indications from the military that troops are in the vicinity of Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s administrative headquarters.

“It is a matter of a few more days at the most before the troops descend on Kilinochchi town. As per our intelligence reports, the Tigers have virtually vacated their administrative headquarters and it has been reduced to a ghost town,” said an Army spokesperson on Sunday.

If the military indeed wrests control of Kilinochchi, it would be for the second time since 1997 the town would be under government control. The military believes that unlike in the past, the soldiers have now encircled the LTTE to inflict maximum damage to its military assets.

“The difference in the current phase of battle against the LTTE and past is that most of the earlier operations were confined to pockets and did not aim at eliminating the source of threat from the Tigers,” Army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka had told Foreign Correspondents Association (FCA) a few weeks ago.

The Air Force said it carried out two air strikes on Sunday. A Defence Ministry statement said one of the targets is the main Black Tiger training centre. It also doubles up as a coordinating facility and LTTE’s intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman visits the site regularly.

“Over the years, the facility has been used to engineer the LTTE’s most barbaric suicide attacks in the south, particularly in Colombo,” said military sources.

Separately, the military said an LTTE suicide bomber blew himself near the Vavuniya bus stand, killing one civilian and injuring nine others on Sunday. It said the bomber rammed a bicycle into a three-wheeler carrying police personnel.

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