Soldiers on Sunday overran Mullaittivu, a northeastern coastal lagoon town that was the Tigers' main base for more than a decade, the island's army chief announced in a televised address to the nation.
The Tigers' latest setback follows the loss three weeks ago of their political capital of Kilinochchi, where they had the trappings of a separate state with their own police, courts and a bank.
Army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) now controlled just a "small strip" of land in the northeast and were completely cornered.
"We have cleared 95 percent of the work (to defeat the Tigers)," Fonseka said, adding the island's government -- which abandoned a Norwegian-brokered truce a year ago -- was now on the verge of winning one of Asia's longest-running civil wars after a massive ground, sea and air campaign against the rebels.
"The end of terrorism is near and we will definitely win," he said.
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