Nov 07, Colombo: Commander of US Pacific Joint Command, Admiral Timothy Keating commended Sri Lankan military for its recent successes against the Tamil Tiger terorists, reports said.

“We are hopeful that the LTTE would be a decreasingly important factor of much less reach than they are and have been in the past,” Admiral Keating told foreign correspondents in New York.

Keating, who is responsible for the US military operation ranging from Australia and New Zealand to China, Taiwan and Japan to India and Sri Lanka, said that “We are very pleased the Sri Lankan Navy has been able to wage an increasingly effective campaign against the LTTE.”

“We are assured and gratified by the progress that the Sri Lankan military is making, and I think, the Sri Lankan military would be the first to admit that there is work to be done.”

“I am confident the Sri Lankan military has very best intentions in the world (to defeat LTTE). Surely, they would like to have greater capability and capacity, but the progress they are making is commendable,” he said.