Colombo, Nov. 26 (Reuters): Sri Lanka’s military today said the Tamil Tigers’ headquarters town would fall imminently, a day before the rebels’ chief was due to give his yearly rallying cry to one of Asia’s longest modern insurgencies.

The battle for Kilinochchi, the self-declared capital of the LTTE, has intensified in the two weeks since the army seized the entire western coast from the rebels for the first time since 1993.

Clashes flared up again today around the town which is of symbolic importance to the LTTE’s separatist aspirations and also a strategic prize for the Sri Lankan military.