Sri Lanka: Terrorism must be crushed

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Sri Lanka's secretary of defense said Tuesday terrorism must be confronted and crushed to ensure a safe country for future generations.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan defense secretary, addressed an armed forces and police graduation ceremony Tuesday at the Batalanda Defense Services Command and Staff College near Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo. Rajapaksa called on the new graduates to confront terrorism at every level and in all its forms, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense reported.

"Today's soldiers, sailors and airmen are required to be competent in a broad array of war fighting tasks," Rajapaksa said during the speech.

"We have to confront terrorism with force to crush it, and crush it forever. Terrorism has to be confronted with military force at every level. We owe it to our future generations to combat terrorism in all its forms and to defeat it convincingly."

The speech came as the Sri Lankan armed forces waged an ongoing campaign targeting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorist group in the country's north. The Sri Lankan government pulled out of a cease-fire with LTTE in January and since then has pushed militarily into LTTE strongholds near the northern district of Kilinochchi.