Sri Lanka ? Sri Lankan forces took control of the entire island’s coastline today, trapping the Tamil Tigers in a tiny pocket of territory and cutting off any sea escape for the rebels’ top leaders, the military said.

The latest military success came after President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared that his soldiers would end the island’s bloody civil war in 48 hours, a deadline that ends today.

Two army divisions moving along the island’s northeastern coast linked up at the coastal village of Vellamullivaikkal to deny the rebels sea access for the first time in their quarter-century separatist insurgency, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The rebels and tens of thousands of civilians are cornered in a tiny, 1.2-square mile strip between a lagoon and the sea.

The U.N. says 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,700 wounded in the fighting from Jan. 20 until May 7, according to a U.N. document given to The Associated Press by a senior diplomat.