COLOMBO: What started off as military push to clear Tamil Tiger artillery guns from a strategic harbour in northeast Sri Lanka has culminated in a mission to defeat the rebels completely – with no clear winner in sight.

Emboldened by the capture of a key Tamil Tiger stronghold, Sri Lanka has vowed to go on the offensive to seek to destroy the rebels’ entire military machine in the apparent belief it can finally win a two-decade civil war.

But observers say President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government and military are underestimating the Tigers, and could simply plunge themselves deeper into a war that has killed over 67,000 people since 1983 – and 4,000 in the past year alone.

“They’re on a roll. They think they can win,” said one foreign diplomat on condition of anonymity. “I think they are going to try something ... I think the fighting’s going to continue because neither side has a motivation to stop.”

“On the side of the government, the hawks are in the driving seat and they’re going to go forward because they think they’re winning ... and they think they can go all the way,” the diplomat added. “(The Tigers) need to do something to achieve parity.”

As troops hunt down routed Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka’s eastern jungles and consolidate their grip on an eastern coastal swathe of what used to be rebel-held territory, the security forces have the upper hand for now.

But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) withdrew from the area to fight another day, and analysts say their military apparatus is still intact.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the president’s brother, says the military will seek and destroy all rebel military assets – including in the northern de facto state they control under the terms of a tattered 2002 ceasefire.—Reuters