AP Features, July 10th, 2007
The military fired mortar rounds and rockets deep into the barren Thoppigala region Tuesday as it fought to defeat the last pockets of Tamil Tiger resistance in eastern Sri Lanka.
Thousands of Sri Lankan commandos and other soldiers were pursuing as many as 200 Tamil rebels _ who were traveling in small cells _ through Thoppigala's vast fields and bush, the military said.
Throughout the morning Tuesday, soldiers based at a former rebel hideout outside Thoppigala fired volleys of rockets and mortar shells into the distance, hoping to keep the fighters off balance as they tried to hide from the commandos, a military official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Senior military officials said they hope to capture or kill the remaining rebels by the end of the month, bringing all of eastern Sri Lanka under government control for the first time since 1994.
The military says the offensive in the east is going slowly because rebels are engaging in few head-to-head battles with the more numerous troops, preferring instead to lay mines and booby traps.
Early Monday, the military said it had scored a major victory when the rebels abandoned the four-kilometer-long rocky Narakamulla plateau, where the Tigers kept a network of observation posts overlooking much of the area.
The rebels nicknamed the plateau and nearby area "Tora Bora" because the caves and crannies made it an ideal hiding place for guerrilla warfare, much like the Tora Bora area in Afghanistan, army officials said.
Fierce fighting still continues in northern Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers maintain control over their de facto state.
A roadside bomb hit a medical vehicle in the rebel-held north Tuesday, killing five people, said the rebels, who blamed Sri Lankan soldiers. The military said it was unaware of the blast.
The vehicle was carrying a medical team of rebels and civilians to a health facility when the blast occurred in Mankulam village, the rebels said in an e-mailed statement. The blast had been set by soldiers who infiltrated rebel territory, the statement alleged.
However, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said he was unaware of any blast.
The rebels claim a special army unit carries out attacks in their territory, but the military has denied the allegations.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by majority Sinhalese-controlled governments. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
Assassinations, airstrikes and clashes have killed more than 5,000 people in the past 20 months, despite a 2002 Norwegian-brokered cease-fire.
