Lankan Army takes key town in final push

Air force jets and attack helicopters bombed and rocketed LTTE positions near Mullaittivu and the A-34 road leading to it,the air force said. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE had no immediate comment.

The military offensive has swiftly boxed the separatist Tigers into a wedge-shaped northeastern corner of the Indian Ocean island,after seizing their self-proclaimed capital of Kilinochchi on Friday. Analysts say that was the most crushing defeat so far for the rebels,once viewed as one of the worlds most resilient guerrilla groups but now increasingly losing ground to a determined Sri Lankan military.

Most analysts caution that if the conventional war ends,the LTTE is likely to revert to hit-and-run guerrilla tactics and bombings in the capital Colombo as it did on Friday,killing three airmen hours after Kilinochchis capture was announced.

The Tigers are waging one of Asias longest civil wars,with the aim of establishing a separate state for minority Tamils. The conflict has killed 70,000 since it began in 1983. A year ago,President Mahinda Rajapaksas government scrapped a poorly observed six-year truce brokered by Norway,accusing the rebels of using it to re-arm and vowing to destroy them unless they surrendered.

The LTTE says it is battling for the rights of ethnic Tamils mistreated by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since Sri Lanka won independence from Britain in 1948. But rights groups say the LTTE,which is on US,EU and Indian terrorist lists,is increasingly using Tamils as human shields and forcibly conscripting them as fighters.