Sri Lankan Army military ops in Tamil Tiger-held areas

Описание: (10 Jul 2007)
1. Sri Lankan troops moving forward in armoured vehicles and tanks to attack Tamil Tiger targets
2. Troops standing on back on military truck
3. Various of troops loading rocket launchers
4. Various of rockets being fired
STORYLINE:
The Sri Lankan military fired mortar rounds and rockets deep into the barren Thoppigala region on Tuesday as it fought against the last pockets of Tamil Tiger resistance in eastern Sri Lanka.
Thousands of Sri Lankan commandos and other soldiers were pursuing around 200 Tamil rebels, who were travelling in small cells, through Thoppigala's vast fields and bush, the military said.
Throughout the morning on Tuesday, soldiers based at a former rebel hideout outside Thoppigala fired volleys of rockets and mortar shells into the distance, hoping to keep the fighters off balance as they tried to hide from the commandos, a military official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Senior military officials said they hoped to capture or kill the remaining rebels by the end of the month, bringing all of eastern Sri Lanka under government control for the first time since 1994.
The military says the offensive in the east is going slowly because rebels are engaging in few head-to-head battles with the more numerous troops, preferring instead to lay mines and booby traps.
Early on Monday, the military said it had scored a major victory when the rebels abandoned the four-kilometre-long (2.4 miles) rocky Narakamulla plateau, where the Tigers kept a network of observation posts overlooking much of the area.
The rebels nicknamed the plateau and nearby area "Tora Bora" because the caves and crannies made it an ideal hiding place for guerrilla warfare, much like the Tora Bora area in Afghanistan, army officials said.
Fierce fighting still continues in northern Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers maintain control over their de facto state.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by majority Sinhalese-controlled governments.
More than 70-thousand people have been killed in the fighting.
Assassinations, airstrikes and clashes have killed more than 5-thousand people in the past 20 months, despite a 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire.

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