'LTTE chief may not survive beyond 6 months'

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo V Prabhakaran will find it difficult to survive beyond six months, Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has warned, vowing to eliminate the 3,000-strong Tiger rebels from their stronghold of Wanni in the embattled north.

"Security forces have occupied the LTTE's forward defence lines and surrounded the Wanni bases from all directions," he said on Saturday after his visit to the north.

"The three armed forces are confident of wiping out the LTTE, which is now smarting its wounds due to the present military operations," Fonseka, who survived an assassination attempt by LTTE in April 2006, said.

"The LTTE may not be able to prevent losing their remaining 3,000 cadres and there is no assurance that leader V Prabhakaran would survive for the next six months as the Sri Lankan air force plans to attack all the LTTE bases," he said.

The army chief said that he was highly satisfied with the successes against the militants in the current year and said that the prime target of the military was to destroy the LTTE's presence in the northern Sri Lanka completely.

 "Our daily target is to kill at least 10 LTTE terrorists and for the last few months, over 500 LTTE cadres 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," he said.

Fonseka said that the correct directives and the support given by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Defence Ministry had helped the military to achieve the set targets.

"All the citizens are waiting to see an end to terrorism. The President very clearly announced his firm opinion about wiping out terrorism and bringing political solutions to address the problems of the Tamil people," he added.