COLOMBO, Jan 10: Sri Lankan security forces were ready to deal a “decisive blow” to the remaining Tamil Tiger rebels following the capture of the highly strategic Elephant Pass, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

After four days of fierce fighting, government forces on Friday established full control over the causeway, which links the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the mainland.

“The fall... has deprived the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the most crucial strategic ground at the ‘Jaffna gateway’ following an eight year occupation,” the ministry said.

“Troops are now poised at launching a decisive blow at the remaining LTTE strong points at Mulliyan, Chempiyanpattu, Chundikulam and Kaddaikadu.” The ministry had already declared that the ethnic rebels were facing near “extinction” after security forces captured their main political headquarters of Kilinochchi last week.

“The end-game of LTTE’s protracted separatist cause is reaching its final stages, as the advancing security forces overran the most fortified LTTE northern garrison” at the Elephant Pass, the ministry said.

The Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting since 1972 for a separate homeland, had held the pass since April 2000, and its loss is another huge blow to the separatists after the fall of Kilinochchi last week.

“Our forces have recorded another historic victory today,” President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation on Friday.

“That is the complete dislodging of the Tigers from Elephant Pass and the security forces establishing their authority there,” he said. The military now controls a 142-kilometre stretch of the important A-9 highway and can supply troops and nearly half a million civilians in Jaffna by road, the president said.

Government forces were also moving towards the remaining jungle hideouts of the Tigers in the northeastern district of Mullaittivu amid rebel resistance, the army said.

Troops on Saturday captured a rebel airstrip and two empty aircraft hangars five kilometres (3.1 miles) west of Mullaittivu, the army said. It gave no further details.

The LTTE are believed to have five Czech-built Zlin-143 aircraft, smuggled onto the island in pieces and re-assembled. The guerrillas last launched an air attack early in September, when they dropped bombs on a military base.

The rebels are now almost totally confined to the jungle and lagoon district around Mullaittivu, where some 300,000 civilians are also living.

The army on Saturday accused the rebels of killing seven civilians who were fleeing from the town of Murusumoddai, near Mullaittivu district.

Troops also recovered 11 rebel bodies following heavy fighting around the Murusumoddai area on Friday, the army said.

The LTTE has not commented on the latest military claims, but did accuse troops of directing artillery fire towards an internally displaced camp inside rebel-held Mullaittivu on Friday, killing one man and injuring four others.—AFP