The opening of another front on the Vanni battlefield would speed up the LTTE’s final collapse, Army Chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka told The Sunday Island.

A confident Fonseka said that Task Force III was ready to join several other fighting formations soon to step up operations on the Vanni front. With the LTTE retreating both east and west of the A9 road, the deployment of Task Force III would facilitate the overall strategy, the commander said.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Sunday Island that the offensive spearheaded by the army was on track.

"We are making steady progress, particularly with the army deployed west of A9 securing Jeyapuram and Nachchikuda last week," he said. He was confident that external factors wouldn’t hinder the offensive which he asserted had reached a decisive stage.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his address to Sir John Kotelawala Defence University last Thursday vowed to finish off the LTTE. He said that there wouldn’t be a turning back and that fresh negotiations would entirely depend on the LTTE’s readiness to lay down arms.

Task Force I (Kilinochchi South), 57 Division (Mullaitivu West) and Task Force II (Vavuniya front) are deployed west of the A9 road while 59 Division (Mullaitivu South) is active east of the A9.

According to Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, Task Force I had secured Madam along the Mannar-Pooneyn A 32 road and was about 10 kilometres away from Pooneryn. On the right flank of the Task Force I, fighting elements of the 57 Division were pushing towards Kilinochchi while Task Force II was gradually advancing eastwards towards the A9, the Brigadier said.

He said 57 Division troops were now operating a few kilometres away from Kilinochchi town limits.

The Defence Secretary said that sporadic counter attacks carried out by the LTTE wouldn’t make a difference.

In the Jaffna theatre, the army had two Divisions to conduct offensive operations across its forward defence line which stretches for about 12 km on the neck of the peninsula. The military asserted that by end of this year, progress on the western part of the Vanni region would make the LTTE’s current deployment of men and material on the neck of the Jaffna peninsula obsolete.

If the military opened up another front in the Jaffna theatre, the LTTE would face the daunting task of meeting a determined army on six fronts, an officer told The Sunday Island. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he asserted that it was only a matter of time before 55 and 53 Divisions make a move on the neck of the Jaffna peninsula.

Although three previous attempts had ended up in failure, a fresh attempt was likely as it would cause further disarray.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of yesterday, the navy destroyed four LTTE craft killing at least 14 LTTE cadres off Nagarkovil and wounded many more. Navy spokesman Commander D. K. P. Dassanayake said that the Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and the Rapid Action Boat Squadron (RABS) zeroed-in-on a cluster of enemy boats launched from Championpattu. He said that five navy personnel received gun shot injuries and were evacuated for medical treatment.

"We recovered four LTTE bodies," he said, dismissing pro-LTTE Tamilnet claim that a Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FAC) and a hovercraft had been sunk. The spokesman said that FACs hadn’t been involved in the two hour engagement while the only hovercraft belonging to the navy wasn’t deployed on any operational purpose.

"In fact, we are trying to find a buyer for that," he said.

The LTTE also claimed that seven Black Sea Tigers sacrificed their lives in the battle which involved 20 Sea Tiger craft. The LTTE said that another SLN vessel had been damaged in the confrontation.