Related: The Silence Over Sri Lanka
"Sri Lankan troops close to seizing guerrilla base" by Krishan Francis, Associated Press | January 2, 2009
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lankan forces captured a key crossroads from Tamil Tiger rebels in the north yesterday and will seize the guerrillas' de facto capital within two days, the military said.
The fall of Kilinochchi would be devastating to the separatist group, which has been forced out of much of its territory in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation amid a renewed government offensive in recent months. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to crush the rebel group and end the nation's 25-year-old civil war this year.
Senior officials have said repeatedly over the past two months that Kilinochchi would fall soon, but troops became bogged down by heavy rains and fierce rebel resistance. The town has been in rebel hands for about a decade. Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said yesterday that the capture of the strategic Paranthan junction earlier in the day - after about six weeks of fighting - left troops about a mile from the town on both the north and the south.
"Kilinochchi will fall within the next 48 hours," he said.
The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment. But Tamil Tiger political leader Balisingham Nadesan told the Associated Press on Tuesday that they began as a guerrilla group and would be able to keep fighting even if they lost much of the territory they controlled in the north.
"We are used to all types of wars," he said.
The government drove the rebels out of their strongholds in the east in 2007 and forced them out of much of their de facto state in the north last year. The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000.
Well, seeing as the MSM practically ignores Sri Lanka today, one can only assume that (like the Kurds; whadda ya mean, WHO, readers?) the Zionist-controlled agenda-pushers are in favor of the government and that most of the deaths (if an accurate count) are on the rebel side.
Of course, I have no way of knowing if what I just typed is true -- not reading an AmeriKan War Daily! Certainly, their pattern of breaking everything down to an either/or position doesn't help -- especially when they cover for globalists playing both sides (like they do on every issue; think drug war).
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