Sri Lankan Military Says Rebel Position Captured
By VOA News
04 May 2009
Sri Lanka's military says it has captured a Tamil rebel fortification and killed a senior rebel as it pushes into a Tamil-controlled enclave in the country's north.
The military says it seized the fortified earthen embankment on Sunday after heavy fighting. A statement by the defense ministry Monday says Tamil Tiger rebels suffered heavy losses. It says senior Tiger leader Thamilendi was among those killed.
There was no comment from the rebels or from independent reporters who are barred from the war zone.
Sri Lanka's government says troops are moving slowly into the rebels' last stronghold, a coastal strip of territory several kilometers long. Tens of thousands of civilians are thought to be trapped there.
Also Monday, a delegation of British lawmakers began a visit to Sri Lanka to examine the plight of civilians affected by the conflict.
The delegation includes former British Defense Secretary Des Browne who was appointed as Britain's special envoy for Sri Lanka earlier this year. Sri Lanka's government rejected the appointment as foreign interference.
The British lawmakers are expected to tour displacement camps in northern Sri Lanka housing tens of thousands of civilians who have fled the fighting.
Tamil rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka since 1983. Tens of thousands of people have died in the civil war.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
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