Sri Lankan troops fought heavy battles yesterday with the Tamil Tigers in the small patch of jungle that remains under rebel control, a day after government forces drove the insurgents from their last major stronghold, the military said.
With troops sweeping across the north and forcing the rebels into a broad retreat from the wide swath of land they once controlled, the military says it is close to crushing the group and ending the 25-year-old civil war in the country.
But analysts warn that it is simply shifting from a conventional fight between two armies to a guerrilla war likely to be fought amid the hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians reportedly trapped in the jungles with the rebels.
Government forces have squeezed the rebels into a 300km² area in the jungle, the military said.
On Sunday, the army overran the coastal town of Mullaittivu — the last major town under rebel control.
Troops were consolidating their control of the town yesterday, while other forces pushed into the jungles in the Vishwamadu area and fought pitched battles with the rebels there, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.
“They are engaging with artillery. They are engaging with mortars. They are engaging with small arms,” he said.
Rebel officials could not be reached for comment because communications to the northern war zone have been cut. It is impossible to verify the military’s accounts because independent journalists are barred from the area.
In recent weeks, the Sri Lankan army has driven the rebels from their administrative capital of Kilinochchi and forced them into a broad retreat.
In announcing the fall of Mullaittivu on Sunday, army commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said the war was “95 percent” over and he appealed for new recruits to join the army and help complete the job.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, Sri Lanka’s former army commander General Jerry de Silva said.
“It is likely they [the rebels] will resort to guerrilla tactics, both jungle and urban,” he said, adding that the jungle canopy above much of the remaining rebel territory could make it difficult for troops to rely on air support.
Human rights groups and diplomats have expressed growing concerns about the safety of hundreds of thousands of war refugees reportedly trapped inside the rebel-controlled areas.
Rights groups have accused the Tamil Tigers of preventing civilians from fleeing the war zone, while the government has said the rebels hoped to use the civilians as human shields. Reports of civilian casualties in the area have grown in recent weeks.
One diplomat said the use of heavy artillery in such a confined area so densely populated with civilians was extremely dangerous and could result in more civilian deaths than if the government relied solely on ground troops.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of antagonizing the Sri Lankan government. International aid workers also refuse to speak publicly, fearing the government will brand them rebel sympathizers and expel them.
Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran remains at large, and the ethnic tensions that have fueled the conflict remain unresolved.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to