The Sri Lankan military said Saturday that at least 66 Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed in northern districts as heavy fighting between government troops and the Tigers continued.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement that one soldier was also killed and 28 others suffered injuries during the clashes that prevailed throughout Friday on the Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna battlefronts.
The statement came one day after Sri Lankan Army Commander Sarath Fonseka told reporters that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would be militarily defeated before he retires from the service at the end of this year.
"I do not want to hand over this issue to the next army commander," Fonseka said Friday night.
The commander, who himself survived an assassination attempt carried out by the LTTE in 2006, said the strength of the LTTE has been reduced to about 4,500 cadres after it lost 2,300 cadres in the east and about 1,500 in the north from mid-2006.
He added that about 600 government soldiers were killed and around 4,000 were injured in the battlefield during the period.
Fonseka said earlier the war with the LTTE would enter into a decisive state by August this year after the organization's strength is further reduced to about 2,000 cadres.
However, the commander said Friday that government troops are not in a hurry and what happened in the last two years will continue in the future.
"The troops are doing very well. And at the rate we are going, there will be major changes in the coming six to seven months," said Fonseka.
Fonseka said he did not believe in a military solution to the country's long drawn-out ethnic issue, but the defeating of the LTTE by the armed forces will pave the way for a political solution.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east.
The Norwegian brokered cease-fire agreement between the two sides will expire on Jan. 16 following the Sri Lankan government'sdecision to withdraw from the truce pact signed in 2002.
Source:Xinhua
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