Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) pounded identified LTTE hideout located in the jungles South of Puthukudiyirippu, Mullaittivu, believed to be frequented by top Tamil Tiger leadership, including supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

According to Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara, Air Force spokesperson, the air raids targeted the hideout believed to be frequented by Prabhakaran.

With ground troops closing-in on the last LTTE bastions at Puthukkudiyirippu and Mullaittivu, Prabakaran is running short of safe houses and escape routes, defence sources said. The hideout was located in a thick canopy area at Venavil, one of the remaining hideouts of Prabakaran.

Reports of fighting have increased in recent months amid government's declaration to crush the group. In a major setback to the rebels, the military took control of their political capital Kilinochchi and captured their main base on the Jaffna peninsula. LTTE communication is experiencing a stand down since the time of the attack, the sources said.

In ground clashes, the 59 Division troops, moving away from the north of Welioya and closing in onto the heart of Mullaittivu, brought the Mulliyavalai-Thanniyuttu government district hospital under their control from the LTTE last evening, the Lankan Army Headquarters said.

"The hospital premises, as all the hallmarks proved, has been extensively used by Tigers as one of their medical centers to treat their injured fellow-cadres," the army said Troops also successfully captured a LTTE training camp with modified concrete bunkers located in Keridamadu near Kilinochchi last afternoon, the army said. PTI More... Published: Tue Jan 13 21:33:40 EST 2009

"No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last."

Mr. Wickrematunga was assassinated by masked gunmen as he drove to work on the morning of January 8th. The paragraph quoted earlier is from his final column, which was published 3 days after his death.

Media groups say that Sri Lanka is one of the most difficult countries in the world in which to report. According to the 2008 report by Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press, Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2008 press freedom index. This was the lowest ranking of any democratic country. More...Discuss this story Published: Tue Jan 13 21:28:15 EST 2009

Air force jets hit a jungle hideout often used by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) founder Vellupillai Prabhakaran on Monday night, the air force said. The air force said the target had been hit, but it was not clear if Prabhakaran was there.

The Tigers could not be reached for comment. But the pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com reported that the military was targeting civilians with artillery attacks, which the military denies.

The military in the last two weeks has seized two major strategic targets, the rebels' self-proclaimed capital of Kilinochchi and Elephant Pass, which puts the entire Jaffna Peninsula under their control for the first time since 2000. More... Published: Tue Jan 13 21:31:21 EST 2009