Sri Lankan soldiers assailed the last slice of land still controlled by ethnic Tamil separatists, killing at least 32 rebels, the defense ministry said Saturday. However, the army could only confirm it killed 7 guerillas in Friday's battle for territory in the coastal area of Mullaitivu. The military has driven the Tamil Tigers from nearly all their northern strongholds in an all-out offensive aimed at ending the South Asian island's quarter-century civil war. Up to 200,000 civilians are cornered along with the holdouts in a strip of jungle and beach along the northeastern coast measuring just 20 square miles (50 square kilometers). International agencies have appealed in vain for a government ceasefire and for the rebels to allow the civilians to flee the war zone. The UN says thousands of innocents have been killed or wounded in recent months. A Ministry of Defense statement said troops and rebels fought several battles in Mullaitivu on Friday, and that at least 32 guerrillas died and more than a dozen were wounded. The rebel force was making “desperate efforts to prolong its imminent defeat,” including setting up artillery positions in a government-declared safe zone, it said. Army spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said troops recovered only seven rebel bodies near Palayamattalan, one of the last rebel-held villages, and that he could not confirm the higher toll. Rebel officials could not be reached for comment Saturday and battlefield details can't be verified independently because journalists are barred from the war zone. Amnesty International said continued harassment and restrictions on the Sri Lankan media has made it impossible to get an impartial picture of what was happening in the country. The London-based group said at least 14 media workers have been killed in Sri Lanka since the beginning of 2006. It says others have been arbitrarily detained, tortured or have disappeared while in the custody of security forces. “Without a free media able to express alternative views and offer the opportunity for public scrutiny, abuses can flourish under a veil of secrecy and denial,” said Yolanda Foster, the rights group's Sri Lanka researcher. “By threatening journalists with the risk of arrest, and failing to protect them from attack, the government is failing its citizens,” she told a vigil in London to mark a prominent Sri Lankan journalist's first year in prison. J.S. Tissainayagam was indicted last year under an anti-terrorism law for two articles he wrote for a magazine that discussed issues confronting Tamils. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have fought since 1983 for an independent state for the Tamil minority, which suffered decades of marginalization at the hands of governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.
