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Sri Lankan troops capture key pass from Tiger rebels
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AFP -  40 minutes ago
COLOMBO (AFP) - - Sri Lankan troops fighting Tamil rebels captured Elephant Pass Friday, a strategic causeway linking the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland, the president said.
The Tamil Tigers had held the pass since April 2000, and its loss is another huge blow to the separatist rebels after the fall of their political capital, Kilinochchi, last week.
"Our forces have recorded another historic victory today," President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a televised address to the nation.
"That is the complete dislodging of the Tigers from Elephant Pass and the security forces establishing their authority there," he said.
The military now controls a 142-kilometre (88-mile) stretch of the important A-9 highway and can supply troops and nearly half a million civilians in Jaffna by road, the president said.
Elephant Pass fell to government soldiers advancing northwards from Kilinochchi and another column that moved south from earlier army defences on the Jaffna peninsula, military officials said.
"They have established full control over Elephant Pass after entering the south of the area four days ago," an official said.
The government's coalition partners said the victory was a big defeat for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who have been waging a bitter war with Sri Lanka since 1972.
"The fall of Elephant Pass, is the biggest military defeat for the LTTE, who have now fled to the nearby jungles of Mullaittivu," Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told reporters in the presence of coalition members.
There was no comment from the LTTE.
Residents in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo took to the streets and set off firecrackers as radio stations announced the capture of the pass.
Government forces were also moving towards the remaining jungle hideouts of the Tigers in the north-eastern district of Mullaittivu amid rebel resistance, the army said.
"Reports confirmed terrorists suffered heavy casualties according to their radio messages," the army said in a statement. "Troops also recovered three LTTE dead bodies."
The military launched its biggest ground offensive against the LTTE in March 2007, since when the rebels' territory has shrunk rapidly.
The Tigers had dislodged the military from Elephant Pass in 2000 and held a 100-kilometre stretch of the A-9 route, forcing the military to use expensive air and sea transport to supply Jaffna.
The rebels are now almost totally confined to the jungle district of Mullaittivu in the northeast, where some 300,000 civilians are also living.
Minister de Silva said it was now a matter of weeks before the military would be able to "free civilians trapped by the LTTE's clutches" inside Mullaittivu.
Separately Friday, four civilians and three security personnel were killed in the adjoining district of Trincomalee when a powerful roadside bomb struck their bus in an ambush by suspected Tiger rebels.
A military official said troops were escorting the bus when it was hit. At least six civilians were wounded in the powerful blast.
"It was a Claymore mine targeting the bus," the official added. "Security personnel from the air force were escorting the bus at the time."
Authorities in the tense region use troops to escort public transport after several LTTE ambushes in the past.
Police said they were probing the LTTE's involvement in the attack.
 
 
 
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