COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan forces captured the Tamil Tigers’ last major stronghold Sunday, confining the rebels to a narrow slice of jungle and ending their decade- long domination of the country’s north.
Army commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka said the bloody ethnic separatist war that has plagued this Indian Ocean island nation since 1983 was nearly over.
But analysts warn that the conflict is simply shifting from a conventional fight between two armies to a guerrilla war likely to be fought among the estimated 250,000 displaced civilians reportedly trapped in the northern jungles with the rebels.
In recent weeks, the Sri Lankan army drove the rebels from their administrative capital of Kilinochchi, forced them to retreat from most of the de facto state they controlled across a wide swath of the north and boxed them into a shrinking pocket of land.
On Sunday afternoon, troops entered the coastal town of Mullaittivu, the last major town under the rebels’ control, and drove off the fighters remaining inside, the military said.
Rebel officials could not be reached for comment because communications to the northern war zone have been cut. However, they have in the past expressed a willingness to return to guerrilla warfare if necessary.
It is impossible to verify the military’s accounts because independent journalists are barred from the area.
The rebels seek to create a separate state in the north and east for minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
