Tamil Tigers may be wiped out after 420 are killed, says military

Sri Lanka's defence ministry has said the country's rebel Tamil Tigers face "total annihilation", after at least 420 were killed in three days of clashes.At least 420 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in three days of clashes in northeast Sri Lanka, the military said on Sunday, as troops moved to wipe out the guerrillas after decades of conflict.Security forces won control of the village of Puthukkudiriruppu where the bodies of 250 rebels were found on Sunday alone, spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said."We have recovered 420 bodies in the past three days," Nanayakkara said, adding that the Tigers had now been pushed into a 20-square kilometre (eight square mile) no-fire zone designated by the government.There was no immediate comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have admitted losing territory to advancing government forces in the coastal district of Mullaittivu.The remaining LTTE fighters were "now facing total annihilation as the soldiers are engaged in man-to-man combat against them in the last terror pocket," the defence ministry said in a separate statement.The Tigers have been encircled for months in a small area of jungle by government troops who appear close to ending the separatists' long campaign for a Tamil homeland.