It said the troops have "almost swept away terrorist strongholds in the northern anterior of the 12-km-long no-fire-zone demarcated for the civilians" and were conducting mop-up operations in the southern anterior of the no-fire-zone (NFZ).
"Troops have identified the best accessible routes for the civilians to come out of the NFZ and established rescue points there. Some of these rescue points are located just 150 metres short of the LTTE built earth bund on the NFZ border," the ministry said.
"Troops continuously keep the civilians informed about the safe routes to the cleared areas as they open up more escape routes to the civilians by removing terrorist blockades," it said, adding that public address systems have been positioned at several locations to inform the people of these routes.
The rescue operation has been launched at a time when the island's donor chairs expressed their "urgent concern for safety of over 100,000 people" trapped in the fierce fighting between the troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Discussing the situation in the northern war-zone, the members of Sri Lanka's donor co-chairs, the US, Norway, Japan and the EU, have stressed "the importance of a humanitarian pause" to ensure that adequate supplies of food, water and medicine reach the civilians in the zone.
Dealing a major blow to of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Sunday, the troops captured Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last bastion, where the rebels maintained several military and naval bases and armoury over the past three decades.
Killing over 500 LTTE in 72 hours in the fight for Puthukkudiyiruppu, the military said Thursday that the troops were "so close to last leg of the war" against the rebels who has been fighting for a separate state over the past quarter century.
copyright 2009 by IANS.
DO IT YOUR WAY SRI LANKA
Ignore what the terrorist sympathizing countries are saying. Fight the way you have so far been doing successfully to wipe out this terrorist menace from the face of the Earth once and for all. If the donor countries do not want to donate, they can stick it up. Once we get rid of the terrorism, we shall once again use all our resources to make this beautiful Island Nation the best in the entire South East Asia which will be the envy of all our neighbors. This South Indian inspired terrorism is not new to us - we have been fighting it for the past couple of thousand years - yet overcame it because of our patriotism and courage. We shall prevail this time too.
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