Sri Lanka's top military leaders have vowed to defeat the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2008 after a set of military victories in 2007, said the Daily News on Monday.
According to the government's official newspaper, Sri Lanka's Tri-Forces Commanders said 2008 would be a decisive year in their effort of "eliminating terrorism from Sri Lanka."
Army Commander Sarath Fonseka said the current battles against the LTTE would be shifted to a decisive phase in August next year because the number of LTTE members should have been reduced to 2,000 by that time.
"Considering the number of Tiger cadres that get killed each day in the (rebel controlled) Wanni front and in Jaffna, this task can be achieved soon," Fonseka was quoted as saying.
"We can bring the war against the LTTE to a turning point once we are able to destroy the LTTE capabilities to operate in bunkers and Forward Defense Lines. Then it would be a case of hunting down the Tiger cadres in the jungles," the Army commander added.
He said the Army was ready to take on this task with the formation of five offensive divisions in the Army to face an estimated 5,000 Tiger cadres left in the Wanni.
Air Force Commander Roshan Gunatilleke said he was quite confident the Air Force would be able to completely breakdown the military capabilities of the LTTE in the Wanni by destroying their military bases, training bases, sea capabilities, armories and their leadership.
Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda also said it was quite possible to defeat the LTTE in 2008.
"We have broken their backbone by destroying their ships and weare hopeful they will be further weakened," the Navy commander added.
He said the LTTE is now starved of arms and ammunition and "this will help the ground troops to achieve the task of eliminating LTTE terrorism in 2008," Karannagoda added.
The military recaptured the entire Eastern Province from the control of the LTTE in 2007, but the rebels said they were only making tactical withdrawals.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence since the end of 2005, making the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement exist only on paper.
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.
Source: Xinhua
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