Cite
MLA
“Battle of Thoppigala.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-thoppigala-2007/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Thoppigala. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-thoppigala-2007/
The army captured the Thoppigala jungle stronghold and the government declared the Eastern Province cleared of the LTTE.
01The last stronghold in the east
The LTTE in the east had been weakened in 2004 when its eastern commander, Karuna Amman, broke away with many of his fighters. After Mavil Aru and Sampur, the army moved through Vakarai on the coast, which fell in January 2007, and then turned inland on the Thoppigala jungle, known to the Tigers as Kudumbimalai. Through the first half of 2007 several brigades worked through the forest and paddy country toward the rock, taking LTTE camps and supply dumps in the forest one by one.
02The fall of the rock
Thoppigala was taken on 11 July 2007, and a victory ceremony was held in Colombo a week later. The remaining LTTE cadres in the east slipped away north into the Vanni. Local and provincial council elections were held in the east in 2008, the first in many years. With its flank secure, the army turned its full strength on the Tigers’ heartland in the north. Outside the north, the LTTE no longer held a single district.
With the east lost, the LTTE was confined to the Vanni, where it was destroyed less than two years later.
