Sri Lankan troops Monday closed in on the capital of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Kilinochchi, as the island-republic's lawmakers approved the record war budget to further boost the morale of the troops, media reports said.
Colombo's armed forces launched multi-directional assaults on Kilinochchi in inclement weather and fierce resistance from the rebels trying to thwart the onward march of the forces towards one of their last remaining citadels.
"Troops continuing their multi-frontal thrust on the outer fringe of Kilinochchi at Adampan South, Puthumurippukulam, north of Kokkuvil and Terumurikandy inflicted heavy damage on the LTTE during intense fighting throughout the day Sunday," the Defense Ministry said.
With the army announcing that its troops are within a "kissing distance" of Kilinochchi, the Parliament passed a $1.6-billion war budget, increasing the island-nation's defense spending by seven per cent.
The move came as M.Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu whose party is a crucial member of the ruling coalition of the Federal Government, and who led a delegation to New Delhi, failed to persuade the Indian prime minister to force Colombo declare a cease-fire. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, instead, agreed to send foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to Colombo to urge the leadership there to protect the lives and limbs of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Earlier, Sri Lanka Army Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, labeled Tamil Nadu leaders, who were demanding a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, as 'political jokers' and accused them of being in the pay of the LTTE.
He expressed confidence that New Delhi is not interested in a ceasefire in Sri Lanka because it had listed the LTTE as a terrorist organization, adding that the Indian government would never influence Sri Lanka to restore the ceasefire with the LTTE and it would not listen to the "political jokers" of Tamil Nadu, whose "survival depends on the LTTE." This remark led to several politicians of Tamilnadu reacting in strong terms.
Colombo has launched a massive military offensive in the rebel-dominated north after pulling out of a Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce in January. It vowed to decimate the LTTE by the year-end, and end the decades-old ethnic conflict in the island-nation.
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