A soldier secures the area where a shooting had taken place in Athurugiriya, a suburb of Colombo. (Reuters)

Chennai/Colombo, Nov. 15: Sri Lankan troops today marched into the northern town of Pooneryn, seizing the LTTE’s last bastion on the west coast and cutting off a vital link for food and fuel the rebels smuggled from India.

The capture of the strategic town, which opens up a land link to the Tamil heartland of Jaffna, means government troops will be in a position to strike the rebel capital of Kilinochchi from three sides. A buoyant President Mahinda Rajapaksa asked the Tamil Tigers to surrender and come for talks.

“This morning our forces have captured Pooneryn and cleared the highway to Jaffna lagoon,” Rajapaksa said in a televised address.

“My clear message to (Tiger chief Vellupillai) Prabhakaran and the LTTE is to lay down their arms and come forward for discussions with us forthwith,” he added. “The laying down of their arms is the greatest service the LTTE could do for ... Sri Lanka.”

There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, whose website said it was only a claim by the President.

Analysts said the fall of Pooneryn was a serious setback for the Tigers as their access to India through the Palk Strait had been cut off. The rebels used the Mannar-Pooneryn route to replenish supplies of fuel, food and even war inputs from Tamil Nadu through smugglers and willing fishermen.

“It is a very significant gain for the Lankan army and a serious setback for the Tigers as, for the first time, they lose access to India through the shortest sea route from an area in their control,” said Colonel R. Hariharan of the South Asia Analysis Group.

Hariharan said Pooneryn’s fall would also open up the A32 coastal highway to Jaffna.

“Overall, the LTTE is poised to lose its vital grip on the Jaffna peninsula’s logistics jugular,” he added.

Government troops entered the town after pitched battles with the rebels over weeks. The defence ministry said the soldiers encountered stiff resistance as they fought through marshlands south of Pooneryn and across the Paranthan junction overnight.

The air force deployed helicopter gunships to pound suspected tiger defences around Jaffna in support of the infantry push.

The coastal town, where rebel artillery kept troops at bay since 1993, had been wrested by the LTTE under the command of the now slain tiger political head S.P. Thamilchelvan.

Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickremanayake claimed that the government troops were also closing in on Kilinochchi, the Tamil Tigers’ political headquarters.

According to defence experts, Pooneryn is strategically more important than Killinochchi, which only carries a symbolic value.

Troops from the army’s Task Force 1 captured Pooneryn after months of heavy fighting this morning. Infantrymen successfully negotiated the marshlands south of the town last night and cut off the Pooneryn-Paranthan road close to Nallur before dawn today.

Troops then marched about 10km along the highway and entered Pooneryn, the LTTE’s last bastion on the west coast, the military said.

According to defence sources, the rebels are putting up a stiff resistance and fighting is still going on in the area.

Media and information minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said in an interview to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation that the Tigers used Pooneryn to launch attacks on army camps.

Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the strength of the security forces was underestimated in the past. Now that period is over.

In a separate development, troops completed mop-up operations in the strategically-located Devils Point area near Kilinochchi. “With this, the prominent Sea Tiger strongholds at Kiranchi, Vallaipadu and Palavi have fallen to the army,” the officials said.

Pooneryn’s capture would, according to experts, give a boost to Lankan forces in their bid to storm Kilinochchi.