Sri Lankan army soldiers ride a battle tank as the national flag of Sri Lanka is seen in the background in Tamil Tiger rebels' fallen administrative capital of Kilinochchi. Photo / AP
COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan military says it has captured an important Tamil Tiger base on the edge of the Jaffna Peninsula.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said troops moving southward from the peninsula seized the base at Pallai last night. Small pockets of rebel fighters battled the troops before withdrawing to their base at Elephant Pass.
Earlier, the Sri Lankan Government has officially outlawed the rebel group, ruling out the possibility of restarting peace talks any time soon to end a quarter-century of civil war.
The move puts even more pressure on the separatist guerrillas, who suffered a major blow when the Sri Lankan military captured their de facto capital last week and promised to finish off the rebels within weeks.
The guerrillas had ignored an ultimatum to allow hundreds of thousands of civilians living in rebel-held areas to leave, so the Cabinet unanimously agreed to the ban, Cabinet minister Maithripala Sirisena said.
The Government and international rights groups have accused the Tamil Tigers of
using civilians as human shields against the military offensive that has shrunk their territory on this island off southern India to a small slice of jungle.
The rebels were not available for comment; most communications in their region have been severed in the fighting. While the ban was little more than a formality, it was seen as a symbolic rejection of any possible rapprochement.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalisation by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.
The Tamil Tigers had long been outlawed in Sri Lanka, but the Government lifted the ban in 2002 when the sides agreed to a ceasefire. The deal collapsed amid new fighting three years ago.
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