Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers will go underground rather than "fight to the last man" once a northern offensive that has cut their strength to 3,000 fighters from 12,000 nears its end, Sri Lanka's army chief said on Thursday.
Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka also said he had no clear timeframe for retaking territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), because his aim was killing all of the insurgents rather than seizing ground. "We don't want to end up in a situation like in Iraq when you're moving fast, but you left behind a whole army who will resort to guerrilla tactics," Fonseka told Reuters in an interview at Army Headquarters in the capital Colombo.
"Therefore I don't give a timeframe," said the 38-year-veteran who was appointed army commander in 2005. The military in the last three months has stepped up an 18-month-old drive to wipe out the Tamil Tigers - regarded as one of the world's most resilient guerrilla groups - and end a war that has killed 70,000 since exploding in 1983.
The Tigers want to establish a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils, in a nation that has been ruled by majority Sinhala-led government since independence from Britain in 1948. Ground troops have steadily fought through the northern jungles of the Indian Ocean island and smashed LTTE outposts, bunkers and trenches with air strike support and a naval push that has almost paralysed the marine "Sea Tigers" unit.