Thaindian News

Colombo, March 26 (IANS) Claiming that the fight-to-finish military campaign against the Tamil Tigers in the island’s north “is going on successfully”, a government spokesman Thursday said that the rebel outfit was facing an “imminent defeat”.
“The government troops have now successfully confined the terrorists to an area of 21 sq km where 20 sq km of that area has been allocated as the safe zone. Therefore, it is apparent that the LTTE is now at the imminent brink of defeat,” defence spokesman and Minister of Foreign Employment Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters Thursday.

Addressing the weekly press briefing on defence matters, Rambukwella charged that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had infiltrated into the government-declared safe-zone for thousands civilians trapped in the war-zone and “are conducting their terror activities in that area”.

He said that the LTTE Wednesday fired missiles from the safe-zone at two military helicopters deployed to evacuate wounded soldiers from the Puthukkudiyiruppu area in the north-eastern Mullaitivu district. The choppers escaped unharmed.

Commenting on the economic effects of the war, Rambukwella said that the total expenditure for the war during the past two and a half years amounted to around Sri Lankan Rupees 350 billion ($3 billion).

“However this cost is a small fraction of the amount spent during the past 30 years. The troops continue to be victorious against the terrorists and therefore this expenditure was not wasted,” he said, stressing that the havoc wrecked by the LTTE were hundred times greater than the expenditure of war.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that the troops have “successfully repulsed an LTTE attack in Iranapalai area” in the early hours of Wednesday, leaving over 30 LTTE cadres dead.

“The LTTE (intercepted) communications confirmed that four top LTTE cadres named Waradaannan, Kadal, Sooriyan and Eelawan were also killed during the incident,” he said.