Sri Lankan army fights toward last Tamil Tiger bases

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops advanced towards Tamil Tiger bastions on Monday, moving into position to assault the heavily-fortified isthmus leading to the Jaffna Peninsula.

Troops moved just south of Elephant Pass, the gateway to Jaffna and former army camp that the Tigers seized in 2000, and also took Oddosudan, a town on the road east to the Tigers' last major stronghold at Mullaittivu port, the military said.

"Troops captured the southern coast of Elephant Pass today," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. The Tigers are dug into fortifications north of there, but are now stuck on a narrow strip of land with the army north and south of them.

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 world's 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 Kilinochchi's capture was announced.