Lankan troops 800 metres from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief

As Sri Lankan forces on Thursday fought their way to just 800 metres from the area where about 10,000-15,000 Tamil civilians are trapped along with the top LTTE leadership, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared that the war was "nearing end".

Rajapaksa also promised Colombo-based foreign diplomats that once the LTTE were eliminated, his Government proposed to bring democracy to the north island.

"The war with LTTE is rapidly nearing its conclusion and we propose to create space for democracy in the north again," he said. His comments come as almost three divisions of the Lankan Army are closing in on trapped LTTE chief V Prabhakaran and his top aides.

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India, Pakistan rivals but they trained, helped us fight Tigers: Lanka Army

Behind the success of the Sri Lankan army’s operations against the Tamil Tigers — troops searching for LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran breached two rebel defence fortifications in the no-fire zone — is an interesting little detail of Indo-Pak cooperation against terror. Separately but consistently, the two countries have trained and equipped the Lankan army to prepare and fight its only enemy, the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan army says the reason for its success is that “we didn’t reduce the momentum”, planned the entire operation in advance and employed innovative counter-insurgency tactics to confront the Tigers.

“I got training in both India and Pakistan. Both have been helping us a lot,” said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara, now the military spokesman. “We send our officers regularly to India and Pakistan for specialised training. I did four courses in India and three in Pakistan. The last time, I trained in Secunderabad.

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