Sri Lankan Government forces fought their way into the Tamil Tigers' main stronghold on Friday for the first time in a decade. The assault on the rebel base could bring the country's brutal 25-year civil war to its endgame.

Government troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from three directions, the army said. The move follows an escalation in fighting in the area in recent weeks that has left hundreds of people dead and injured.

A defence ministry spokesman said: "The fall of Kilinochchi is imminent as the security forces have already entered into the Kilinochchi town perimeter from the northern, southern and western edges of Kilinochchi town".

He added: "There are no any option available [to the Tigers] other than to flee to the jungle."

For months the Government has claimed that Kilinochchi is poised to fall, an event that could allow it to claim victory in Asia's longest-running civil war, a conflict that has claimed more than 70,000 lives.

The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had pledged to crush the rebels militarily before the end of 2008. An estimated 250,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes in the face of the army's advance.

Kilinochchi is effectively the administrative centre of the parallel state that the Tigers, who are classified as a terrorist organisation by the US and the EU, have fought to establish to protect Sri Lanka's Tamil minority from a Government dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority.

However, analysts say that even if Kilinochchi is toppled, rebel troops are likely to fight on in the surrounding dense jungle.

The Tiger's political leader Balasingham Nadesan said this week that the organisation began as a guerrilla group and would be able to keep fighting even if they lost much of the territory they controlled in the north.

Meanwhile, the Government's escalation of the conflict has drawn a wave of criticism over an alleged surge in extortion, abductions and extrajudicial killings in army-held areas, with pro-government militias usually being blamed.

On Thursday government forces captured Paranthan, a key Tamil Tiger garrison just 4.5 km from Kilinochchi.

The Government said that ground forces supported by helicopter gunships and jets fighters overran the stronghold after hours of bitterly fierce fighting. The fall of Paranthan, the site of an important crossroads which had been under rebel control for ten years, cut supply routes to other Tiger strongholds, a spokesman for the defence ministry said.

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