Army chief challenges Tigers to fight against military

by Shanika Sriyananda

The Army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka has challenged the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabahakaran to fight against the military and not with innocent civilians.

He said that the military is quite knowledgeable in LTTE tactics which resort to kill innocent unarmed civilians including children, mainly to divert the troops engaged in fighting in the Northern areas. Army chief told the 'Sunday Observer' that the military would not budge an inch from the present positions and would launch more strong offensives against the terrorists.

Lt. Gen. Fonseka said that the LTTE in the face of their setbacks in the northern battlefront, the LTTE leader was like an insane animal now. " The military is engaged in a humanitarian operation and as a responsible Army, we always try to minimise civilian casualties when going ahead with military operations", he said.

He reiterated that the military would continue operations to liberate civilians in LTTE controlled areas in the North and Wanni. He said that security forces were gaining control over their LTTE Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in several LTTE held areas. According to the Army Commander the LTTE attempted to lighten the military pressure on LTTE held areas in the North and Wanni by massacring innocent civilians. " The military has the required number of cadres to protect the country from any terrorist attack and we do not have any shortage of manpower", he said.

Meanwhile, Army spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told the media yesterday that the military had captured a four kilometre area from the LTTE FDL in Mannar. He said that the LTTE was pushed back 20 kilometres from the Omanthai FDL now. " Over 32 terrorists have been killed in the offensives carried out in Vavuniya, Mannar and FDLs in Jaffna yesterday", he said.