COLOMBO: Government forces captured the Tamil Tigers’ de facto capital in northern Sri Lanka yesterday, dealing a devastating blow to the rebels’ quarter-century fight for an independent state, the president said.
But in a sign the rebels retained their ability to strike back, a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide attacker on a motorcycle detonated a bomb near the air force headquarters in the heart of the capital during afternoon rush hour, killing three airmen and injuring 37 other people.
The civil war between the two sides has killed at least 70,000 people and plagued the Indian Ocean island nation off and on for 25 years. A 2002 cease-fire collapsed in new fighting three years ago, and government forces have pushed deep into the rebels’ heartland in the jungles of the north in recent months.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who has vowed to destroy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, announced the fall of Kilinochchi in a nationally televised speech.
“Our brave and heroic troops have fully captured Kilinochchi, which was considered the main bastion of the LTTE,” he said, as Cabinet ministers erupted in applause. “For the last time, I call upon the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender.”
Celebrations erupted across Colombo, where people flooded the streets, dancing and waving Sri Lankan flags and setting off firecrackers. “We ask the government to completely destroy the Tiger terrorists who have ruined this country,” said businessman Sudath Walakumbura.
The rebel spokesman could not be reached for comment.
But less than an hour after Rajapakse’s speech, a suspected rebel suicide attacker blew himself up near air force headquarters in the heart of Colombo among troops heading home in the busy afternoon rush hour, air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said.
The Tamil Tigers have been blamed for scores of bombings and suicide attacks and are listed as a terror group by the United States and European Union.
The fall of Kilinochchi was a devastating blow to the rebels’ dream of establishing a state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority in the northeast after decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.
