The Sri Lanka Army has restored two key regional headquarters in the North, at Killinochchi and Mullaitivu.

Two senior officers of the Sri Lanka Army Major General Channa Goonetilake and Major General Nandana Udawatta have been appointed the Commanders of new two Security Forces Headquarters (SFHQ) in Killinochchi and Mullaitivu, respectively.

The appointments are with effect from today - June 02, 2009.

The two SF Command Headquarters at Killinochchi and Mullaitivu were abandoned some years ago in the face of major attacks by the LTTE, and operations in these areas were directed from Vavuniya. Killinochchi was considered the Administrative Centre of the LTTE and fell to Sri Lankan troops on January 2 this year, while Mullaitivu, which was a key military base of the LTTE, an important operational centre of its Sea Tiger arm, and stronghold of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, fell to advancing SL troops shortly after, following heaving fighting.

The LTTE forcibly took away the Tamil civilian population from these key towns after their fall to the Security Forces, taking them on a forced march to several locations, holding them as human shields and finally as hostages, to prevent the final advance of the SL troops in the hope of western international support to obtain a ceasefire as a lifeline to the LTTE.