By IANS
Colombo : Tamil Tiger rebels will not be able to withstand the ongoing three-pronged attack on their strongholds in north Sri Lanka though they are putting up fierce resistance, a top Sri Lankan official has said.
“The LTTE would not be able to successfully resist troops on three different fronts,” Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island daily Monday, even as he acknowledged that the rebels were putting up stiff resistance.
The Sri Lankan armed forces were attacking the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Mannar, Vavuniya and Jaffna simultaneously, he said.
Both sides are using heavy weapons like artillery and multi-barrel rocket launchers.
“Faced with a severe shortage of ammunition and dwindling numbers due to growing losses and sharp drop in recruitment, the LTTE is struggling to hold its positions,” Rajapaksa said after a visit to the frontlines in the north.
“The bulk of LTTE fighting cadres are deployed across the Jaffna frontline, where skirmishes take place almost daily.”
But government troops had done “exceptionally well” in the recent high intensity battles, though inclement weather was causing problems, said the top official, who is Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother.
He said he had made it very clear to the three service chiefs that the onus of bringing peace to the country was on them because only a military victory over the LTTE would ensure a peaceful settlement of the Tamil question.