Colombo: Dealing a body blow to the beleaguered Tamil Tigers, Sri Lankan troops on Sunday captured the garrison town of Mullaittivu, the last urban stronghold of the LTTE, with the military asserting that the 25-year-long ethnic conflict was now "95 per cent over".
"We have completely captured Mullaittivu," a beaming Sri Lankan Army Chief Lt General Sarath Fonseka said in a nationally televised address to the nation to announce the recapture of the strategic rebel military base after 12 years.
With the fall of Mullittivu, the LTTE loses its last major stronghold in the once-rebel dominated north and now remains boxed in a tiny patch of jungle in the coastal Mullaittivu district.
The military had captured the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi earlier this month.
The troops fought their way into the town amid fierce resistance by LTTE this morning and fully captured it after pitched battles with groups of rebels.
With this, the 25-year-long civil war was "95 per cent over", the army chief said as the state-run TV beamed footage of celebrations and bursting of crackers by people.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has congratulated the Lankan troops for their latest success.
Many of the remaining rebel fighters, along with a large number of civilians, were believed to be hiding in the nearby jungles of the northeast. Fonseka had earlier said the army has not detected many bunkers in Mullaittivu jungles that would enable the LTTE to prolong the offensive.
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