CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

SRI LANKA ARMY CAPTURES THOPPIGALA AFTER A WAR WAGED NEARLY SIX MONTHS DEFEATING TIGERS WHO HELD IT OVER A DECADE

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lanka’s Defense Ministry announced its troops have reached Thoppigala or Barrons Cap Mountain few hours ago for which it has been fighting for months to rid the Eastern province of Tamil Tigers.

“. With this victory, troops have captured the ‘nerve centre’ of the LTTE terrorists' in their last stronghold in the Eastern province,” announced the Defense Ministry website, Wednesday June 11 at 11.10 a.m.

The Defense Ministry said now it is in full control of the Narkamulla and Tharavikulama areas where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership had its Eastern headquarters and other fortifications.

The Defense Ministry said that in the surrounding jungle there were few “enemy pockets” and the troops were now engaged in the clearing of them.

The same sources said they were also pursuing “some other LTTE units who are on the run.”
The main news website of the LTTE, Tamil Net kept mum on the story.

The capture of Thoppigala was a foregone conclusion when the military captured two days ago on Monday a strategic plateau close to the main mountain.

Since the war started to capture Thoppigala in February the LTTE lost vast swathes of land and hundreds of their cadres to the Army’s onslaught supported by the air power of the Sri Lanka Air Force. Army said it could minimize their casualties due to the air strikes.

The Sri Lanka Army’s ground command said that according to their intelligence the LTTE lost 444 LTTE cadres and 327 others have been injured.

On Monday the Army said that there were only 200 LTTE cadres left in the area.
The Army is believed to be fighting some of those at the moment and pursuing others who are who are attempting to withdraw to Kilinochchi or Mulativu Districts.

The Thoppigala command headquarters of the Tigers had existed over a decade since the mid 1990’s.

During the last many months 20 Sri Lanka Army soldiers and two officers have been killed in the fight to take Thoppigala back. Last Sunday troops started capturing the Tora Bora plateau. The march to Thoppigala was a slow and steady military move since troops had to brave hundreds of land mines and booby traps of the Tamil Tigers.

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