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Sri Lankan troops seize rebel communications

Other News Materials 28 February 2009 09:32 (UTC +04:00)

The Sri Lankan government troops who are having the Tamil Tiger rebels on the run in the northeastern region have captured rebel communication facilities in their last hold, defense officials said Saturday.
Officials from the Ministry of Defense said the Voice of Tigers radio and television facilities located in the western sector of Puthukudyiruppu area were seized on Friday evening.
The troops are now heading towards the south of Puthukudyiruppu where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel leaders trapped in the face of the military advance, Xinhua reported.
The heavy fighting erupting on Friday was indicative of the leaders' presence in the area, officials said.
Puthukudyiruppu is the last bastion left for the LTTE after it lost their territory to the military since the mid-2006. They are now confined to an area of just 58 sq km, the military say.
The LTTE, which led an three-decade old rebellion to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community in the north and east, lost the Eastern Province in 2007 and since the beginning of this year have lost all its main locations in the north to the advancing troops.
Military said the entire country would be free from rebels when Puthukudyiruppu is taken from the rebels.
More than 70,000 people have died in one of the world's longest running armed insurgencies in Sri Lanka. 

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