Sri Lankan Army Commander, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka claimed that '80 percent of the fighting ability' of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been 'eliminated' and troops would soon re-open a main supply route between
According to the Fonseka the military had killed thirteen thousand LTTE fighters in the past two-and-a-half years.
"Over 80 per cent of the war against the LTTE has been completed after regaining 80 per cent of the areas under them and killing over 13,000 of their cadres,"
Addressing the troops attached to the Gajaba Regiment at the regimental headquarters at Saliyapura in the north-central Anuradhapura district on Monday, November 3, Fonseka said that the advancing troops were now just seven kilometers away from the Kilaly lagoon, which links the northern Jaffna peninsula to the Wanni mainland along the western coast.
'On reaching the Jaffna's Kilaly lagoon, the entire western part of Kilinochchi district would be sans terrorists, enabling the troops to re-open a main supply route to Jaffna shortly,' army chief told troopers.
'As the troops are now closing in on the Kilaly lagoon, depriving the terrorists of their western Pooneryn bastion, the troops have so far managed to eliminate 80 percent of the LTTE fighting ability after suppressing them. Thus the western sector of the A-9 highway would remain completely clear,' he added.
The army website reported Fonseka as further saying the 'capture of Mullaitheevu simultaneously mobilising many more battalions under four divisions would form a 50 km-long frontage to the east of the A-9 road, providing full security to the area afterwards'.
After capturing LTTE administered territory in western Vanni, for the past couple of months Sri Lankan forces have been trying to capturing LTTE’s administrative capital of Kilinochchi and Pooneryn which will open a land route to
