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Colombo: Sri Lanka's army chief said the leader of the country's Tamil Tiger rebels could be dead within six months and the military's aim was to kill at least 10 rebels each day, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka was quoted by the state-run weekend paper Sunday Observer as saying the security forces had occupied Tamil Tiger forward defence lines and surrounded the northern rebel-held Wanni rebel base.
"The LTTE can not prevent losing their remaining 3,000 cadres and there is no assurance that the LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran would survive for the next six months as the Sri Lanka Air Force plans to attack all the LTTE bases," Fonseka said.
The full name for the rebels is Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"Our daily target is to kill at least 10 LTTE terrorists and, over the last few months, over 500 LTTE (fighters) have been killed by the armed forces," Fonseka said.
"We have weakened the LTTE by 50 per cent or more and we are confident we can go that extra mile in the coming year."
Call to end ceasefire
Fonseka's comments came a day after the defence secretary called for an official end to a ceasefire between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels, saying the agreement had been violated so many times it had become a sham.
The Tigers have been outlawed as a terrorist group by a host of nations, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, after a series of attacks and assassinations.
Jehan Perera, an analyst with the non-partisan advocacy group, the National Peace Council, said he thought that while the LTTE may have only 3,000 highly trained fighters, "they have many more in their military forces".
But he also remarked that the government had improved its combat ability "because the government has bunker-busting bombs and the LTTE has not been able to successfully deter air force bombing raids".
More than 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters since early 2006 alone, taking the death toll since the war erupted in 1983 to around 70,000.
The Tigers, who seek to carve out an independent state in the island's north and east, were not immediately available for comment.
But reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said last month he had no hope of a political settlement with the government after his political wing's chief was killed in an air force bombing raid.
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