The government announced that it will issue decrees that will put the nation under controls seen only in wartime. Thus the battle with the LTTE rebels goes from being an insurgency to a full scale war. The government has asked several foreign nations for military assistance, but not for foreign troops. In the north, three divisions are holding, or at least slowing down, LTTE rebels some 45 kilometers from the town of Jaffna. The rebels have launched an attack on the key naval base of Kilali, some 36 kilometers south of the town of Jaffna. The government is said to have asked India for ships to help evacuate army and navy personnel if it looks like the naval base will fall.