S.Lanka military enters rebel capital, captures main town
By Shihar Aneez
COLOMBO, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's military has entered the rebels' de-facto capital in the north of the island, killing 20 Tamil Tiger rebels after fierce fighting, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday.
The rebel capital in the island's northern district of Kilinochchi is where the elusive rebel leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran is believed to be hiding.
"Troops crossed the district borders between Mannar and Kilinochchi districts at an undisclosed location," the Defence Ministry said in its website www.defence.lk.
Two soldiers were killed in the operation.
The military also captured one of the main rebel strongholds, killing 30 rebels in northern Mannar district.
"Army soldiers -- captured the Vellankulam town, the LTTE's last stronghold in Mannar district this afternoon," the ministry said.
However, it was not immediately clear whether the military had captured the whole northern Mannar district, where the military has advanced significantly in the recent months.
The rebels were not immediately available for comment.
Sri Lanka's government is pursuing a strategy to gradually retake the Tiger's northern stronghold and win the 25-year civil war amidst an almost-daily barrage of land, sea and air attacks in northern rebel-held territories.
The country's civil war has killed more than 70,000 people since it started. The LTTE, which the United States classifies as a terrorist group, is fighting to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils in north and east Sri Lanka since 1983.
Analysts say the military has an advantage in the latest phase of the war given its superior air power, strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in the island's east. But they still see no clear winner on the horizon.
The military offensive in the northern offensive continued amid a South Asian regional summit in Sri Lanka which endorsed fighting terrorism in all its forms.
Leaders of Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, which are among the countries hit by severe terrorist activities, on Monday said 'terrorism was the main threat of the region that hinders the growth and it should be eradicated.'
The Tamil Tiger rebels had declared a 10-day unilateral truce starting from July 26 as a goodwill gesture for the summit in Colombo but the announcement was dismissed by the government which said it had not received official notification and was sceptical about the declaration.
The government deployed more than 19,000 extra police and soldiers in the capital for the meeting.
(Editing by Mary Gabriel)
