Prabhakaran traced? Lankan army tightens noose

One of the most feared guerrilla leaders LTTE chief Prabhakaran is nearing a final showdown with the Sri Lankan army.

According to sources, the military has tracked Prabhakaran near Mullaitivu.

Sources also told CNN-IBN that the army is keen to finish the operation before Saturday's provincial polls.

On Wednesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed that Prabhakaran would have to face "consequences" for all his acts of violence the past 25 years and for rejecting his surrender call.

The defence ministry said the steadily advancing troops encountered "dwindling but constant" resistance from the LTTE, which has been fighting to carve out a separate state for a quarter century.

It is believed that all ministers have been asked to stay in Colombo till Sunday. Important state functions have also been cancelled to focus on the military’s flushing out mission.

The LTTE is now left with barely 14 sq km of territory, an appalling fall from the times when their writ ran over vast areas in Sri Lanka's Tamil-majority northeastern province.

According to the military, over 103,000 civilians have fled since Monday morning and entered government-controlled areas despite desperate efforts by the LTTE to prevent them from leaving.

As the international community kept pressing for a halt in fighting, the foreign ministry said it believed that 15,000-20,000 Tamil civilians might be in the area still with the LTTE.

Diplomats and military officials said the fleeing men, women and children were being provided food and medical aid after being screened to weed out possible guerrilla infiltrators hiding in their midst.