Lankan army takes over strategic town

Sri Lanka's army on Monday wrested control of a strategic northeastern coastal town that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam used to cripple a main naval base.

Soldiers, backed by artillery and mortar bombs, captured Sampur, about 10 kilometers across the Trincomalee natural harbour, which is home to a naval base and an airfield.

"We captured the Sampur gun position of the LTTE," Policy Planning Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said, adding, "There were only a few casualties. We did not encounter much resistance."

The military had earlier decided to call off a ground offensive and used intense air power to pound Sampur before moving in on Monday.

The fall of Sampur secures the northern peninsula of Jaffna too because all supplies and troops sent to Jaffna start their journey in Trincomalee.

Earlier last month, the Tigers used Sampur to pound Trincomalee, inflicting heavy losses on the military and crippling supplies to Jaffna.

Rambukwella said, "Although the Tigers boasted they will not allow the army to move into Sampur, they had pulled back before soldiers could march in."

The Tigers had also warned that a capture of Sampur will be the end of the February 2002 truce.

However, Sri Lanka sent an emissary to New Delhi over the weekend to inform Indian authorities of the imperatives to take Sampur in order to secure military supplies to Jaffna, official sources said.