Sri Lankan Government says it will end the 25-year civil war by Saturday night

[shaayecanaan]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gVoaDFmbCYS-Usz9ACDRIengj21QD987A8HG0

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan forces took control of the island's entire coastline Saturday for the first time in decades, sealing the Tamil Tigers in a tiny pocket of territory and cutting off the possibility of a sea escape by the rebels' top leaders, the military said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to defeat the remaining rebel fighters and end the 25-year-old civil war by Saturday night.

As the war has entered its final stages, tens of thousands of civilians have fled intense shelling of the last bit of territory under rebel control — a 1.2-square mile (3.1-square kilometer) strip between a lagoon and the sea. More than 17,500 civilians have fled since Thursday, according to military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.

The latest military success gave the government full control of the coast for the first time in nearly a quarter-century. The rebels, who once ran a de facto state across the north, had controlled a formidable navy and sea smuggling operation.

[LakeSamish706]

1. So why the hell has it taken 25 years to do what they have done in a matter of weeks? duh... n/t

[Enrique]

2. what time on Sat. night? n/t

[bemildred]

3. I guess having China on your side is a big plus.

LTTE are/were nasty buggers, you just don't know who to side with.

[shaayecanaan]

4. Mission accomplished: War to end on Tuesday

TOP STORY: Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil Tiger rebellion, was reported killed today as the Sri Lankan government declared victory in Asia's longest-running civil war. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to formally announced the end of the 25-year war on Tuesday.

There had been reports that the remaining Tigers had been planning to commit mass suicide, but the rebels vowed to lay down their arms yesterday, saying that the fighting had reached its "bitter end" and that they did not want to give the government more excuses for killing Tamil civilians. The United Nations says that at least 7,000 have died since January.

The defeat is a stunning fall for the Tigers, who controlled a third of the island's territory as little as two years ago, but the rebels have previously vowed that if they lost the conventional war, they would return to their guerilla roots.