(PTI) The Sri Lankan army chief today said his forces are on the verge of capturing the key LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi as fighter jets, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery pounded rebel positions leaving 21 Tamil Tigers dead. "We are two kms away from the Kilinochchi town limits," Army Chief Sarath Fonseka said in Anuradhapura, 212 kms north of capital Colombo.MI-24 Helicopter gunships targeted LTTE bunkers on the city outskirts and an air force spokesman said that the air-action was timed to support the push of the ground forces into the town. Three soldiers were also killed in the operation.
The control of Kilinochchi could be decisive in the island nation's over three decades of civil strife. Once the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam lose the town, they would have no option but to fall back on Mullaittivu or go back guerrilla warfare.
Sri Lankan army has been on the offensive against the Tigers since January this year when Colombo scrapped a tattered 2002 ceasefire with the rebels, wresting control of number of towns held by the LTTE.
According to government figures, the Tamil Tigers have lost more than 7,000 fighters in this period while the military losses have been put at 700.
Fonseka, who was in the Buddhist city to attend the traditional Army Flag Blessing ceremony ahead of the Army Day on October 10, said the government proposed to declare Viswamadu and Otisudan in Kilinochchi a no war zone after the army consolidated its position there.