From The Economist:
Driven from their northern headquarters, Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels face defeat
THE long conventional war in Sri Lanka, pitting the Sinhalese-dominated government against the vicious rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have been fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority, is almost over. On Monday January 5th the army was reported to be bombarding the LTTE’s remaining scrap of territory in north-eastern Sri Lanka, after last week taking the rebel capital of Kilinochchi, which the LTTE ruled for a decade of its 25-year armed struggle.
This last battle may be bloody. On Sunday the rebels claimed to have killed 53 soldiers near Mullaitivu, the last big rebel-held town, and the alleged refuge of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE’s feared leader. Both sides have predicted that the rebels will continue to wage a guerrilla campaign after their last battlefield defeat. But the government hopes that by killing or capturing Mr Prabhakaran it may at least curtail the conflict. Fearing a terrorist reprisal from the Tigers—who have become perfectors of the suicide bomb-blast—it has tightened security measures in Colombo, the capital, and forced all ethnic Tamils in the city to be registered.
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