By IANS,
Colombo : Vowing to press ahead with the ongoing military thrust against the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that “no force can reverse the unparalleled victories achieved” by the Sri Lankan security forces against the LTTE.
Addressing an annual event to mark the ‘War Heroes’ of the army’s Sinha Regiment at Ambepussa, about 60 km northeast of Colombo, President Rajapaksa said Saturday that the Sri Lankan forces were “fighting a war setting an example to the entire world”.
“I don’t think there is a single battle in the world parallel to the battle fought by our security forces at present in which they secure victory after victory without facing a single drawback since the Mavilaru battle (in East) to the Wanni liberation operation (in North),” the state-run Sunday Observer has quoted Rajapaksa as saying.
President Rajapaksa’s remarks have come at a time when the troops advancing in several directions were said to be operating on the outskirts of Kilinochchi town, 350 km north of here.
The military said that heavy clashes prevailed in the area during the past few days as the LTTE gave heavy resistance to the soldiers inching towards the rebels’ political capital, Kilinochchi.
Sri Lankan Air Force jets carried out at least nine air raids throughout Saturday “targeting LTTE battlefield fortifications” at Kilinochchi and the adjoining Paranthan areas in support of the advancing ground troops.
Claiming that the forward march of “the valiant troops could not be stopped by the chemical weapons, air raids, earth bunds and monsoon rains”, Rajapaksa has said that the common masses of the island nation have realised the objectives of his government’s war against terrorism.
“Our objective is to bring prosperity to the North in the same manner we did in the East,” he said.