Sri Lankan troops have rescued all civilians held by Tamil Tiger rebels, according to a military spokesman.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that more than 50,000 people have come out of the area in the past three days and that ‘all the civilians held as a human shield by the Tigers’ have been rescued.
He added, however, that the Tigers still controlled a ‘small patch of jungle’.
The military claims Tamil Tiger rebels have launched suicide attacks against Sri Lankan troops fighting to deliver a death blow to the separatists after the president declared victory in Asia's longest modern war.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to the country early on today, the day after he said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had been defeated militarily in the 25-year civil war, even as combat still raged in the island's northeast.
The LTTE, founded on a culture of suicide before surrender, showed no sign of giving up in the face of an overwhelming military onslaught that has given no quarter in a relentless offensive nearing its third year.
Troops killed at least 70 Tiger fighters masquerading as civilians who tried to cross the Nanthikadal lagoon, on the western side of the battlezone, in six boats.
Blasts rocked the remaining rebel-held area, now measuring barely a square kilometre the military said.
Government forces yesterday took control of the entire island's coast for the first time since the war broke out in 1983, cutting off any chance of escape for a militant group whose conventional defeat has been a foregone conclusion for months.
Rumours swirled about the fate of Tiger founder-leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran and other senior leaders after a massive explosion was heard inside a bunker. Prabhakaran has in the past vowed not to be taken alive.
Nearly 37,000 people fled to army-held areas yesterday, bringing the total since Thursday to more than 50,000. Before the exodus started, the United Nations had estimated there were 50,000-100,000 there.
