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End-game for LTTE, says Army

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan military on Friday said that with the fall of Elephant Pass, troops were now poised to capture the remaining LTTE strong points at Mulliyan, Chempiyanpattuwa, Chundikulama and Kaddaikadu, even as at least seven people, including three Air Force personnel, were killed in an attack by suspected LTTE cadre in Trincomalee district in the east.

The Defence Ministry said here the “end-game of LTTE’s protracted separatist cause is reaching its final stages” as the advancing forces overran the highly-fortified LTTE northern garrison at Elephant Pass.

“In the face of concentrated armour, artillery, infantry and mechanised infantry assaults led by close-support SLAF raids, LTTE terrorists pulled off from the garrison township, with soaring casualties and losses, towards Mulliyan,” it said.

The Ministry claimed that the “conquest” of the LTTE complex signified a major victory for the security forces. The Pass gets its name as elephants carried goods into the Jaffna peninsula from the south.

“EPS was earlier occupied by the Dutch during the colonial rule in the island, who had built a fort in 1760, identifying its strategic value in maintaining vital military cum logistic supply with the Jaffna mainland,” said the statement.

It said the late Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranayake maintained a small military detachment which was turned into a permanent Army transition base following the July 1983 unrest.

“The surge of calamity in Jaffna forced the military to shift its presence from Jaffna to the more remote Elephant Pass.”

It said the Pass and Kurinchattiv had been the largest salt producing areas on the island, with a combined area of 100 acres producing more than 85,000 metric tonnes per year, before the area was engulfed by the bitter fighting for decades.

The military said troops were now advancing eastwards and had engaged in daylong clashes on the outskirts of Vaddakachchi, one of the strongest remaining LTTE strongholds in Wanni.

According to the military, the attack in Trincomalee district targeted civilians who were employed at an irrigation development project funded by the government. It said that Air Force personnel were providing escort to the civilians.

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