Sri Lankan security forces on Saturday captured the strategically important northern town of Pooneryn from Tamil Tiger rebels after months of heavy fighting, the defence ministry said.
”Troops of army Task Force One have entered LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] bastion of Pooneryn this morning [Saturday],” the ministry said in a statement. It gave no further details.
Tigers had been occupying Pooneryn after dislodging the main military base there in November 1993.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, who had conceded that security had moved deep into territory held by them in the northern parts of the country since the middle of last year.
Security forces in recent months stepped up their offensive in a bid to capture the town of Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Tamil Tigers, but rains and rebel resistance had slowed those operations.
However, with the fall of Pooneryn, the military has taken the north-western seaboard of the island and are poised to open a new land route to the Jaffna peninsula, which had so far been supplied by sea and air routes.
The military has stopped releasing its own casualties figures in daily bulletins since last month, but official figures tabled in Parliament show that 1 269 troops had been killed in the first 10 months of this year.
The military had claimed killing over 7 500 Tiger rebels this year since the military pulled out of a Norwegian-arranged truce in January.
The LTTE has been fighting since 1972 to carve out a homeland for minority Tamils from the majority Sinhalese community. Tens of thousands have been killed in the conflict. – AFP
