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Sri Lanka claims Tamil Tigers cornered

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, March 5 (UPI) -- The remaining forces of the Tamil Tigers were trapped in a 21-square-mile area in northern Sri Lanka, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The military offensive has left civilians trapped between the two sides, the Press Trust of India reported. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a truce to allow civilians to leave the area.

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Government troops took Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last town the Tigers held, and killed at least 44 suspected rebels, officials said.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been fighting for autonomy for the country's Tamil minority for two decades. Thousands of people have been killed on both sides in the civil war.

With President Mahinda Rajapaksa's election in 2005 and his brother Gotabhaya's appointment as defense minister, the government launched an effort to crush the Tigers with military force, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

"We didn't expect the LTTE to collapse so soon. They'd built such a reputation for themselves as being invincible," Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohone told the Monitor.

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