Public help and patience vital as Forces gear up to face LTTE air threat

Battlefield failures propel Tigers towards desperate measures

TIGER PLOY: The country is now in a confused situation. The LTTE has been successful in their effort to drag the country into this unnecessary confusion due to their desperate attempts to put the Government and the Security Forces in an inconvenient situation.

The single reason for this status quo is the failed attempt by the LTTE to create mayhem in Colombo and suburbs making use of their obsolete air capabilities.

The country has been confused, even disregarding the fact that the LTTE had failed in all their attempts to create mayhem in the South targeting sensitive economic centres, such as oil storage facilities and economic centres such as Colombo Port.

The other factor was that the two light aircraft of the LTTE which had dropped bombs at Kolonnawa and Kerawalapitiya were not destroyed.

Through this factor the LTTE is easily achieving their objectives as they have succeeded in creating mistrust among the public towards the capabilities and achievements of the Security Forces.

They made use of their propaganda tools and organisations working in line with their agenda to create this

 mistrust among the public, so that they can easily achieve their other objectives not only in the North and East but also in the South.

The main objective of the LTTE is to create a misconception among the public that they are an organisation which cannot be defeated by the Security Forces and thereby get the public to agitate against the Security Forces to stop their activities in the North East.

Therefore, it is now high time to see whether there is any reason for the public to have any mistrust about the capabilities of the Security Forces and to believe in the misconception that this is an “unwinnable” war for the Security Forces. One should also find out why the LTTE is making use such tactics at this decisive juncture.

The disadvantageous position the LTTE is now facing in the Eastern theatre is one of the major reasons for the Tiger outfit to follow tactics of this nature.

The LTTE’s say in the Eastern theatre has now been totally eliminated with their successive defeats commencing from the Mavilaru battle in July last year. They are now confined to several jungle patches in Batticaloa and Ampara districts.

According to the Security Forces, apart from small Tiger groups operating in jungle patches in the Ampara district, few dozens of Tiger cadres trapped in the Thoppigala jungles and some cadres moving with the

civilians in Batticaloa, the Tiger outfit have no strength at all in the Eastern province.

The Security Forces broke the false image of the LTTE outfit, acting far superior to the Tiger outfit by changing their usual war tactics, to turn the war in favour of them, and gaining victories with minimum casualties to own troops.

The public was having the same type of misconception, as they feel now, when the Security Forces won battles in Mavilaru, Muttur, Sampur, Vakarai and the latest in West and South of Batticaloa.

But through their action, the Security Forces proved that the Tiger outfit was not so powerful as they projected to the outside world.

Now it is the responsibility of the troops to keep the East intact without allowing the Tiger cadres to strengthen themselves or allowing them to send reinforcements to the East. They should further neutralise LTTE activities in the East by conducting mopping up operations in the East.

Apart from this the development drive should also take place in the East specially in the Batticaloa district after resettling displaced civilians, further distancing the Tamil population from the Tiger outfit.

However, the Tiger outfit accepted their defeat in the East, with Sea Tiger leader Soosai himself involved in an operation to transfer some Tiger leaders and cadres trapped in Peraru jungles on May 4.

The Naval troops on alert thwarted the Sea Tiger leader’s efforts to transfer these Tiger leaders to Mullaitivu by using 26 Tiger boats, completely destroying two of them and damaging eight other boats.

In this battle it was later revealed that four LTTE leaders in the self-styled ranks of ‘Lt. Col.’ Thamulawan alias

 Pudiyawana alias Yogarasa Jayapalan, Thiruchandren Sathyaseela alias Sudar, Anton Angelo alias Thuiyawan and Chemmalai area Sea Tiger leader Karanan have been killed.

Therefore, it is now understood that the Tiger outfit is not considering the East as a safer ground for them and is in the process of withdrawing their cadres from the East. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the Security Forces to prevent such moves by the LTTE in view of the security situation in the Wanni.

The situation in Wanni is also not in favour of the Tiger outfit and now they are in constant fear about the infiltration of their Defences in the Wanni by ground troops.

The LTTE has deployed more than 1,500 to 2,000 cadres to guard the FDLs in Madhu and Mannar fearing Security Forces infiltration to the Wanni region.

According to technical and ground sources the troops engaged in the operation have been able inflict more than 500 casualties among Tiger cadres during this operation. The troops are now engaged in a tactic to draw more LTTE cadres towards the FDL in Madhu and confront them.

The Tiger outfit is now resorting to these desperate bids as they are in an insecure situation in the Wanni too with the threats posed by the ground troops.

Troops penetrating the Wanni region have put the Tiger outfit in a dangerous situation and they are making all these outcries to stop the fall of their strongholds in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu to the Security Forces.

Apart from this the Tigers also have increased their presence in the FDLs in Muhamalai with the objective of breaking down Security Forces defences and capturing Jaffna considered by them to be the heart of their self-acclaimed ‘Tamil homeland’.

Despite several attempts to break into Security Forces defences they had failed in their endeavour.

The Naval troops in Kayts successfully repulsed a Tiger attempt to create mayhem in the peninsula penetrating into Jaffna islands. In a cordon and search operation carried out on April 29 the Naval troops gunned down five LTTE cadres including the Kayts LTTE leader Eeeramavaran.

With these incidents the Security Forces in Jaffna are now ready to repulse any Tiger attempt to capture Jaffna peninsula where the Tamil population is leading a better life without any harassment by the Tiger outfit.

The Security Forces have also been successful in their endeavour to maintain Colombo’s security at the highest possible level, amidst increased efforts by the LTTE to damage vital economic centres in Colombo and target VVIPs.

The Tiger outfit is hurt because they could not even explode a bomb in Colombo city to cripple the efforts made by the Security Forces in the North and East.

Intelligence reports have indicated that the Tiger outfit had intensified their efforts to target vital economic centres in Colombo mainly the Colombo Port as such an effort could help them cripple the economy.

They made an unsuccessful effort on April 29 to drop bombs on the Colombo Port but failed in their endeavour as Security Forces promptly activated the Air Defence weapons at the Colombo Port.

The Security Forces and the Police have been able to break the cells of the LTTE in Colombo and suburbs identifying LTTE infiltration in Wattala, Ja-Ela and Negombo area and also in Atopy area in the Puttalam district.

Tiger cadres moving from the Wanni make use of the Puttalam area for their clandestine activities since they have easy access from Wanni by boat.

The Police and the Security Forces intensified their search operations in these areas recently giving no room for the Tiger cadres to enter Colombo to accomplish their targets.

The discovery of suicide jackets hidden in Kovils in Kayts and also in Kokkadicholai by the troops was a major breakthrough, since they were intended to be sent to Colombo to assassinate VVIPs.

However, the Security Forces have received information that the Tiger outfit has sent some cadres and vehicles to Colombo to create mayhem in Colombo and target VVIPs in Colombo.

Therefore, increased surveillance by the Security Forces and Police will help avert such disasters in Colombo.

While ground troops and the Police are doing their best to keep the North, East and the South free of terrorism the Navy also contributed for this task through the destruction of LTTE ships smuggling arms to the LTTE in deep seas.

The action by the Navy has put the LTTE in a desperate situation as they lost much needed state-of-the art weapons and ammunition for the LTTE to effectively face the battles in the North East.

The LTTE also faced severe threats from the Air Force as they precisely engaged LTTE targets in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts crippling their military activities.

The SLAF has effectively damaged the major logistics supply facilities of the LTTE and also their training bases. The improvement of night operations capabilities of the SLAF too has put the LTTE in a more disadvantageous position.

As a whole the Security Forces has displayed a much superior position, compared to the LTTE in their fighting

 capabilities putting the LTTE in a more disadvantageous position.

So the only way out of this crisis is through the creation of confused situation in the South using their obsolete air capabilities as a tool to mislead the people.

The only difference in their strategy is that they are now doing this with two light aircraft, which is comparatively a newer experience for the people in the South, as they failed to use their usual tactics of suicide bombers.

They did confuse the people earlier too when Vakarai was about to fall, by exploding bombs in Nittambuwa and Hikkaduwa.

In that instance the public cooperated with the Security Forces to avert such incidents in Colombo and suburbs giving a free hand for the Security Forces to achieve their objectives.

Considering all these achievements by the Security Forces there is no reason for the public to unnecessarily panic about the air capabilities of the LTTE, as Security Forces are making a determined effort to destroy the air capabilities.

As Government Defence Affairs Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella pointed out, the Navy took a reasonable period to effectively face the Sea Tiger threat when they first came out with their Black Tiger cadres.

In the same manner the SLAF will also face the Tiger air threat effectively after a clear assessment of their capabilities and equipped with best weapons systems to face this threat effectively.

The public should make note of the efforts made by the SLAF and the Security Forces to face this threat even without being armed with a proper Air Defence System to protect the sensitive Air Force bases and other military and economic installation.

As stated by Minister Rambukwella the SLAF goes by a spot defence system as they are yet to equipped with weapons to neutralise these threats. People will have be patient since the installation of country’s Air Defence System commenced only in 2006.

Under these circumstances the SLAF will take time to train their people to destroy the LTTE air capabilities and to improve themselves finding out their weaknesses.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the common masses to assist the effort made by the SLAF to face this situation effectively without falling victim of the Tiger trap to demoralise the Security Forces engaged in the task of eliminating terrorism from this land.