By Xinhua,
Colombo : Sri Lankan government troops who captured a key Tamil Tiger rebel sea wing base in the northern district of Mannar on Wednesday are now further consolidating their positions, officials said Thursday.
The government troops completely captured the Vidathalthivu sea Tiger camp belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)on Wednesday.
“The troops are now three km south of Iruppakandal,” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman told reporters.
Nanayakkara said the troops have found abandoned vehicles belonging to the rebels in the area.
The Army’s 58 division captured Vidathalthivu after the area remained under the rebel control for 21 years.
With the fall of Vidathalthivu, the LTTE’s sea Tiger wing has lost its biggest supply base in the western coast, defense analysts noted.
The Commander of the Army Sarath Fonseka has said the loss was a huge blow to the rebels in their sea operations.
Having taking control of the whole Eastern Province from the rebels in 2007, Sri Lanka’s security forces are currently battling the LTTE in the north with the aim of crushing them within one year.
The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people.