‘Endgame’ For LTTE

Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka during his visit to Vanni Security Forces headquarters to assess the ground situation in the Vanni liberation operation on Wednesday has told the field commanders that all possible safety measures should be taken with utmost precision when conducting offensive operations in the remaining area under LTTE control.

According to the Army Commander the LTTE has been left with only 45 square kilometers including the safety zone declared for civilians trapped inside Tiger controlled areas. The number of civilians trapped inside this narrow land stretch is around 76,000 according to estimates by Government officials.

Prerequisite

Therefore, it has become a prerequisite on the part of the Security Forces, as said by the Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka, to take maximum safety measures to ensure their safety inside this narrow stretch of land.

Amid this background, the final battle against the LTTE is going to be tricky for the Security Forces as they are responsible for each and every civilian life entrapped there irrespective of the fact that they are fighting against the most ruthless terror outfit in the world.

The Sri Lankan Security Forces, unlike other nations which carried out indiscriminate bombing against their enemy, from the beginning have displayed its capability to react to such sensitive situations maintaining a minimum civilian casualty rate and trying their best to maintain a zero casualty rate.

On the other hand, Sri Lankan Security Forces cannot act irresponsibly as they are engaged in a humanitarian operation to liberate the innocent Tamil civilian population who are also a part of the Sri Lankan nation, from the clutches of a terror outfit.

Final battle

Therefore, the final battle which is now on in Puthukuduyiruppu in the true spirit has turned into a humanitarian operation and each and every step in this battle has become crucial because of the following factors.

The first factor is that the LTTE has been confined to 45 square kilometers with its depleting strength estimated to less than 600 well trained cadres. From that 45 Square Kilometres a narrow stretch of 12 Km on the North of Mullaitivu has been demarcated as a safety zone for civilians estimated to be around 76,000.

The crucial factor is that these civilians are still living under the control of the LTTE and all the Tiger leaders including Velupillai Prabhakaran, Intelligence Wing Leader Pottu Amman, Sea Tiger leader Soosai and other military leaders like Bhanu and Swarnam are still living in this limited area.

According to military intelligence the LTTE is still having fare stocks of arms and ammunition to fight with the Security Forces for months despite the Security Forces capturing many of their arms and ammunition stocks in the newly captured areas.

The LTTE is having such a massive stock of arms for their ground level cadres to use 12.7 mm heavy machine gun as their personnel weapon. This has been witnessed in the Puthukudiyiruppu battlefront within the past few weeks due to the stiff resistance from the Tiger cadres operating in the front lines.

The most precarious and alarming situation is that the LTTE still has the possibility to make use of the trapped civilians to fill its depleting strength and put them forcibly into the front lines at least to direct fire at the advancing troops. It is an easy task for the LTTE as they have given basic weapon training for each and every civilian aged between 12 and 55.

Pathetic situation

Under these circumstances these civilians will have to face a pathetic situation as Security Forces can easily direct fire at them as long as these civilians are holding guns against the advancing troops.

So the LTTE will very soon expose its true nature and the international community will realise as to why the LTTE kept those civilians under their arrest for such a long period when things unfold within the next few days.

The Security Forces who have surrounded the remaining Tiger territory from the South West and North are expecting a worst kind of terror reaction once they make inroads into the centre of Iranapalai where LTTE is having its nerve centre with all its top rung leaders operating from there.

According to ground realities once each battle formation engaged in the final battle in Puthukudiyiruppu advance another four Kilometers that will be the end of the Tiger outfit and will be end of all battles against the LTTE.

To achieve this the 58 Division under the Command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva, 55 Division under the command of Brigadier Prasanna Silva, Task Force VIII under the command of Colonel G.V. Ravipriya and the 53 Division under the Command of Major General Kamal Gunaratne are making determined efforts as they see the end of the tunnel as of now.

Currently the 55 Division is located in the North of Puthumattalan and advancing towards the ‘Safe Zone’ along the beach front from the North to South direction, and the 58 Division is operating in the North of A-35 road and advancing into the centre of Iranapalai from the North to South and West to East direction and area covering the crucial part of the Tiger territory at present.

The Task Force VIII under the command of Colonel G.V. Ravipriya and the 53 Division under the command of Major General Kamal Gunaratna are making inroads into the centre of Puthukudiyiruppu from South to North direction.

All these battle formations are marching amidst stiff resistance from the LTTE. The LTTE is making maximum use of fire power against the advancing troops locating their long range artillery guns inside the Safe Zone declared by the Government.

Artillery support

Therefore, the troops giving artillery support has no option but to wait and see when hundreds of our troops sustaining injuries in the battlefront with no option available to them to neutralize Tiger artillery guns.

It was amidst this situation 58 Division troops commanded by Brigadier Shavendra Silva managed to capture the Puthukudiyiruppu junction on Tuesday around 6.45 a.m. The Task Force VIII troops led by Colonel G.V. Ravipriya and commanded by 53 Division GOC Major General Kamal Gunaratne also moved into the Puthukudiyiruppu junction after 58 Div troops moved there on Tuesday morning.

Scores of Tiger cadres were killed during the fierce battles that raged surrounding the Puthukudiyiruppu junction as 58 Division changed its West to East march and directed troops towards this key junction on Sunday morning. It was after 48 hours fighting the Infantrymen of the 9 Gemunu Watch under the command of Lt. Colonel Lal Chandrasiri and 12 Gajabha Regiment under the command of Major Saliya Amunugama played the key role in capturing Puthukudiyiruppu junction under the command of 582 Brigade Commander Lt. Colonel Sanjay Wanigasinghe.

The 1Gajaba Regiment and 4 Vijayaba Infantry Regiment attached to the Task Force VIII also joined hands with the 58 Division troops in securing the entire Puthukudiyiruppu junction having entered the Puthukudiyiruppu junction from the South of A-35 road.

Main concern

The main concern of the 58 Division is now focused on the Iranapalai located in the North East of Puthukudiyiruppu city centre where the LTTE has located their main operations rooms of their top level leaders.

As 58 Division troops are marching towards Iranapalai area amidst securing the remaining parts of the Puthukudiyiruppu town, the 55 Division under the command of Brigadier Prasanna Silva is also advancing towards the edge of the No Fire Zone in Puthumattalan.

Counter attacks

Baffled by these moves by the 55 Division with the commencement of its southward advance from Chalai from last Friday, the LTTE is making continuous attempts to stop the 55 Division reaching Puthumattalan area.

Last Friday and Saturday the LTTE launched six counter attacks as the 55 Division troops captured Tiger defence line in Puthumatalan North defence line. There have been 15 counter attacks by the LTTE to recapture the defence line.

According to ground troops LTTE Sea Tiger Leader Soosai and top rung leader Lawrence led the battles and sent flotilla of boats to launch these counter attacks in support of their ground cadres.

The ground troops of the 55 Division fighting in this narrow stretch of land had to counter these Sea Tiger attacks themselves using their heavy weapons against the flotilla of boats.

The second attempt to recapture this defence line was made on Sunday night by launching yet another attack using more than ten to 15 Tiger boats including suicide boats targeting the narrow stretch of lagoon that separates Chalai area and Puthumattalan North.

The 55 Division effectively foiled this attack also effectively destroying at least four Tiger boats in the early hours of Monday.

Repeated attacks

The LTTE repeatedly attacked the troops advancing towards North of Puthumattalan as they are aware once the 55 Division troops reach the edge of Puthumattalana they are going to lose the entire sea front and also the remaining civilian population in that area.

The LTTE wanted to keep this narrow stretch of the sea front open for them to flee the country at any moment.

So they would continuously make such desperate attempts to thwart the efforts of the Security Forces advancing towards the Puthumattalan North, as they can operate their boats close to the ground in this narrow stretch of the sea belt.

In order to strengthen the defences of the ground troops the 55 Division has also launched small boats to patrol the sea closer to Chalai area.

Apart from the main thrusts made by the LTTE against the advancing troops the LTTE is also making efforts to induct their cadres from the rear of the Security Forces defences.

The 55 Division troops experienced such a situation on Monday as they witnessed that a group of four Tiger cadres had infiltrated into the Chalai area from the coast.

The 55 Division troops detected this Tiger movement once they found one soldier found dead on the beach closer to a bunker on Monday morning. The troops found two female cadres running towards the jungle patch when they the soldier moving into the bunker was shot dead by somebody.

However, troops managed to shoot at one female cadre running towards the jungle and she blew herself when a soldier tried to reach towards wounded female cadre.

When the soldier who reached closer to the suicide cadre the other female cadre ordered her to blow off her suicide kit. The soldier reached closer to that female cadre was also killed in that blast.

The troops recovered four packs in the vicinity of the blast and found that the four packs were containing essential items enough for weeks long operations after infiltrating into the jungle patches.

The jungle patch in Chundikulam area gave a real cover for these Tiger cadres to operate without being caught by the Security Forces. The armor piercing bullets, Rocket Propelled Guns and claymore mines weighing 12 and 15 Kg gave a clear signal that they have reached there to launch attacks targeting the movements on the A-9 road which was reopened for military convoys last Monday.

Following this incident, troops of the 55 Division launched a massive cordon and search operation in search of the Tiger cadres that may have infiltrated into Chundikulam sanctuary area. A Commando squadron was also brought to the area to intensify the cordon and search operation.

It was after a 72 hour operation the Command troops detected the balance three Tiger cadres who were hiding inside the thorny bushes in the Chundikulam sanctuary area.

Tiger cadres

Three Commando troops were also died when detecting those Tiger cadres. This incident very clearly indicates that the LTTE is not willing to give up their efforts of thwarting the Security Forces advance into their territory.

It was with that background Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka told the field commanders to be vigilant on Tigers attempts to infiltrate into the Security Forces controlled areas from the rear of their defences.

This has been witnessed in the Mullaitivu area on February 1, 2009 and their subsequent attempts to infiltrate Security Forces defences in the South of Puthukudiyiruppu using explosive laden vehicles.

Like the attempt they made in Puthukudiyiruppu which has been considered the biggest counter attack launched by the LTTE in the two and half year long conflict, the Security Forces are expecting the worst kind of reaction by the LTTE once they are going to face their final destruction at the hands of the Security Forces.