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Rajapaksa asks LTTE cadre to surrender

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said the current phase of war would mark the end of the LTTE’s battle for a separate State and counselled the Tiger cadre to surrender. Meanwhile, the troops claimed further advances into the last strongholds of the LTTE-held territory in the north.

In an interview to Al Jazeera television channel, Mr. Rajapaksa claimed, “LTTE cadres are willing to surrender to the security forces and many have done so.”

He argued that successive governments had tried in vain to persuade the LTTE to negotiate a political solution, and that under the circumstances, the government could not offer anything more to the terrorist group.

Mr. Rajapaksa said he believed in a political solution and was confident that this would be best addressed after defeating the terrorists militarily.

Meanwhile, the Air Force bombed several “identified” LTTE locations in the Kilinochchi district. Air Force spokesperson Janaka Nanayakkara said jets launched four strikes targeting three “vital encampments of LTTE”. He said all three targets were effectively engaged.

In a statement posted on its website, the LTTE alleged that two civilians including a schoolteacher were killed and seven wounded in an air strike. The military claimed that battlefield reports indicated 29 deaths to the LTTE cadre on the Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mullathivu fronts.

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