"The Sri Lankan army today seized control of Kilinochchi, the low-lying northern town in which separatist Tamil Tiger rebels had put together the institutions of their long sought-after independent state.
The major symbolic victory for the government could also prove a decisive turning point in the country's 25-year civil war.
"This was an unparalleled victory," the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, said in a televised speech from his office.
"Kilinochchi was the capital of a state dreamt of by a terrorist organisation. It will no longer be available to them. We should pay the gratitude of the whole nation to those heroic soldiers who achieved that victory." "
Read the rest of the article at the Guardian.
More headlines from Sri Lanka here.
And CNN has an explainer called Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers, for a quick background on the 25 year old conflict.
I thought the war would be over by the end of 2008, but perhaps in '09 that will actually happen.
- Sujewa
