Before recapturing the city of Jaffna, which has significant historical and cultural meaning for the Tamils, government forces received an influx of new weapons, stopping the Tigers short of their goal. Government and Tiger forces have since hunkered down in a trench-warfare campaign, with each side gaining and losing ground alternately. Better-armed and prepared for conventional warfare, the Sri Lankan military now appears to have regained the upper hand in the conflict on the peninsula. Sri Lankan infantry troops are about 10 miles from the edge of the main rebel base at Elephant Pass. Gradually, Tamil rebels accrued weapons in ambushes or when pushing back government troops.
Tigers keep some tanks and various rockets in reserve as well.
If government troops retake the pass, rebel forces on the peninsula will be cut off from their supply routes to Sri Lanka's interior. The loss of the Jaffna Peninsula will further jeopardize the Tiger's food and armaments supply route, as the peninsula is the closest point to sympathetic ethnic Tamils in India. While a victory in Elephant Pass and the Jaffna Peninsula will boost the beleaguered government and its military forces, it will be short-lived. Far from ending the armed conflict, the fighting will simply shift from the current conventional war, which heavily favors government troops, to the more traditional jungle war that favors the Tigers. The government seems to have misinterpreted the Tigers' truce offer as an indicator of weakness.