Caged Tigers unable to break free Pottu Amman’s hand forced

Desperation was so high among the Tiger leaders and it was exhibited in numerous ways when their territory had shrunk with an unexpected speed within the past few days with the Security Forces accelerating their determined march to capture the last inch of territory under Tiger control.

The Security Forces have overcome all kinds of barriers: human shield, suicide bombers, suicide vehicles, natural obstacles and the stiff resistance to achieve these successes.

Now the plight of the LTTE is akin to a group of caged Tigers, as they are trying their best to break open the cage wherever possible and flee into a jungle attacking whoever comes its way. There is no aim in those desperate attempts as they miserably failed in all their endeavours.

So the LTTE has been put into a most miserable situation after their attempts on March 5 and 8 to breach the Security Forces defences South of Chalai were effectively foiled by the Security Forces.

After these failures many cadres who managed to escape into the jungle patches faced their destiny in isolation in the jungle patches of Chalai in the face of search and clear operations conducted by the 58 Division along with the Commando troops and the Special Forces troops.

A large number of top and middle rung Tiger cadres were among 200 Tiger cadres slaughtered during this attack.

The destiny of the Swarnam who led the battle along with Lawrence is not known yet. It is believed that either he was dead or seriously wounded in battle. There is a big suspicion about the fate of Swarnam as Lawrence who was also badly injured during the counter attack launched by the 58 Division is back in the battlefront a few days back.

Vigorous battle

As the tense situation is growing so vigorously, with fierce battles continuing in Puthukudiyiruppu East, Iranapalai and in the Western edge of the Nanthikadal lagoon the civilian population trapped in the No Fire Zone has become the biggest victim at the hands of the LTTE.

Many observers who were closely monitoring the progress of the last leg of the battle are surprised at the way the LTTE is maintaining their strength inside this small territory. There were many assessments by the Security Forces about the remaining strength of the LTTE who are now facing its last battle.

But all those figures became invalid, as the LTTE is maintaining a similar type of strength even at this stage after losing over 250 cadres during their failed attempts to breach the Security Forces defences on March 5 and 8.

The bitter truth is that the LTTE is forcibly recruiting at least 200 civilian to the outfit and put them into the front line after giving them crash training to fire T-56 weapons. The civilians fleeing from the Tiger grip are now divulging the brutal ways the LTTE is taking those innocent civilians into the front lines against their will.

Therefore, the civilians trapped inside this No Fire Zone have become a good hunting ground for the LTTE to continue its vigorous recruitment drive to fill its depleting strength. The civilians have no option but to give away their beloved ones to the LTTE as they have been left with no place to hide their children inside this narrow stretch of land.

Depleting strength

One could imagine the way LTTE is reinforcing its depleting strength as they have already focussed on all civilians in the aged group of 14 to 45 as their recruits. What they needed was only to refresh the knowledge of handling weapons each and every Tamil civilian in that age group had learnt earlier under compulsory weapon training by the LTTE.

It was under these circumstances the ICRC had to transport hundreds of sick and wounded civilians from the No Fire Zone on a weekly basis with short intervals as these civilians introduced into the battlefront were frequently getting wounded.

Therefore, this situation should be brought to the notice of those international organizations who are making statements about the Sri Lankan situation, without studying the factsand the ground situation properly.

They should be more specific in making statements as general comments on the overall situation would harm the party who had acted in a fair and just manner. The most hurting thing is that those organizations have totally ignored the restraint and the patience of the Security Forces in their bid to achieve their final goal of eradicating LTTE terrorism fully from the Sri Lankan soil.

Amid this situation the LTTE which could maintain a big pressure on the civilians are now losing that grip as the Security Forces have confined them to an area less than five square kilometers territory outside the No Fire Zone.

The exodus of civilians arriving in Government controlled areas have once again increased this week with the troops closing in on to the No Fire Zone from three directions.

The civilians trapped inside the No Fire Zone are taking two ground routes to enter Security Forces controlled areas. One route is in the North of Puthumattalan crossing the lagoon in the Ampalavanpokkanai area towards the 58 Division. From the South of the No Fire Zone civilians are taking a route towards the Nanthikadal lagoon and reaching the 53 Division and Task Force VIII area.

Meanwhile, civilians have also resorted to take sea routes to reach Jaffna from the North of Chalai. The Sri Lanka Navy operating in the high seas are directing those civilians into safer areas in the Jaffna peninsula.

The threat on the Navy boats operating in the Northern seas to handle these civilians in Northern seas have been minimized with the ground troops capturing almost all the Sea Tiger Bases in the entire East and also in the Western coast.

Ground troops have taken control of 11 well known Sea Tiger bases and captured many Sea Tiger assets including sub marines, underwater scooters, suicide boats and many other improvised boats operated by the LTTE.

Therefore, the terrain the Sea Tiger can launch their boats have been reduced to a 17 Kilometre sea bed from the North of Mullaitvu to Chalai South by the ground troops.

This background has created a free environment for the civilians to escape via sea. Yet, the LTTE is trying their best to stop these civilians fleeing from the No Fire Zone indiscriminately firing at them, at many instances severely wounding them and killing them ruthlessly.

The Sri Lanka Navy stated on Wednesday that they had rescued more than 700 civilians from the Tiger grip after chasing the LTTE boats which had tried to obstruct the escaping civilians.

But the civilians are braving the brutalities of the LTTE in search of their freedom in the Government controlled areas.

Heavy influx

According to statistics more than 45,000 civilians have already arrived in Government controlled areas and another 70,000 people are still trapped inside the No Fire Zone. Heavy influx of civilians are expected in the coming days once ground troops reach more closer to the No Fire Zone from all three directions from the North, the West and the South.

The 55 Division under the command of Brigadier Prasanna Silva operating in the Puthumattalan North are heading towards the Northern edge of the No Fire Zone. They made their latest attempt on March 16 advancing from their positions South of Chalai.

The 1 Sri Lanka Light Infantry battalions under the command of Lt. Colonel Chandana Wickremasinghe advanced towards the Tiger defences which had been heavily fortified by constructing an earth bund. Heavy fighting erupted in this terrain as LTTE fired at the troops using a pedal gun (30 mm).

It is extremely difficult to operate in this narrow strip of land separated from the mainland from a lagoon. But troops managed to capture the Tiger earth bund killing six Tiger cadres and wounding 26 others.

The LTTE has strengthened their positions along this narrow stretch of land expecting sea landing by the Security Forces and also to cover their High Security Zones from the beach front. There are more earth bunds ahead and troops of the 55 Division are poised to march towards the Northern edge of the No Fire Zone clearing all those earth bunds.

Meanwhile, the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva that had taken the brunt of the battle facing massive frontage of the Tiger defences are also reaching the Western edge of the No Fire Zone.

The 58 Division is in the process of clearing the last build up area under the LTTE in Iranapalai in Puthukudiyiruppu North. The 58 Division has now passed Iranapalai junction and taken full control of the road that leads to Puthumattalan in the No Fire Zone from the Puthukudiyiruppu junction.

The capture of this key road will definitely facilitate the liberation of the civilians trapped inside the No Fore Zone as it provides direct access to the No Fire Zone through a land route.

Infantrymen of 20 Gajaba Regiment (20 GR), 7 Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (7 SLSR) and 11 Sri Lanka Light Infantry (11 SLLI) serving under 581 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Deshapriya Gunawardena reached to the Iranapalai junction following intense fighting for the last few days.

The capture of entire Iranapalai area is a huge blow to the LTTE as they are losing the last build up area under their control. However, troops were able to inflict maximum damages to the LTTE.

Failed attempts

There had been intense arguments between the top rung Tiger leaders after the capture of Iranapalai junction by the troops as they are losing the last operational centre. According to ground troops LTTE Intelligence Wing leader Pottu Amman is openly handling the battle as all other leaders failed to defend Iranapalai, considered to be the hideout of Pottu Amman.

In other words war had come to his compound and he has to handle it himself if he wants to defend himself. But there is a question, how long can he manage to survive in his territory as there is a big tendency among the Tiger cadres to flee from the areas where their leaders are present.

The latest reports indicates that the personnel driver of the Tiger Intelligence Wing leader Pottu Amman has also surrendered to the 58 Division after arriving in Government controlled areas mingling with the civilians on Wednesday.

He has left Tiger controlled areas along with his family after Pottu Amman’s hide out came under attack of the Security Forces during day time on March 16. He had escaped from the area during this attack.

According to his revelations he had worked as the driver of Pottu Amman for three years after 2005. According to him Pottu Amman is a resident of Ariyalai, Jaffna and living with his wife Wathsala, a member of the LTTE and with his three children.

Although, Pottu Amman had used defenders and double cabs as his personnel vehicles now he had to use a motorbike as his vehicle. This very clearly shows that the LTTE leaders are now fast losing their luxury life as they no longer can hide from the eyes of the Security Forces in the small terrain.

Although Pottu Amman is considered the Second in Command of the LTTE hierarchy Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has lost confidence in him. Even Pottu Amman is not aware of Prabhakaran’s movements as he used to send a vehicle once he wants to meet Pottu Amman personally.

He has however divulged that the LTTE is still maintaining considerable strength with them after deploying hurriedly trained civilians to the battle front.

Security Forces have also observed that the LTTE had made use of disabled cadres to man their defences as troops attached to the 53 Division have found a body of a female Tiger cadre who was with an artificial limb and a hand.

The 53 Division under the command of Major General Kamal Gunaratne and Task Force VIII under the command of Colonel G.V. Ravipriya are also making headway towards the Southern edge of the No Fire Zone having advanced to the Northern edge of the Nanthikadal lagoon.

Strong Defence

The LTTE is strongly defending this terrain as they area aware that its loss of that ground will be the end of their journey. But the troops attached to 5 Gajaba Regiment, 5 Gemunu Watch, 6 Gajaba Regiment, 18 Gemunu Watch , 15 Sri Lanka Light Infantry Regiment and 1 Gemunu Watch Battalions are heading towards their task.

Therefore, the LTTE will have to decide whether they should end their game outside the No Fire Zone or to continue this battle further having shifted the battle to the No Fire Zone demarcated for the safety of their own Tamil community inflicting suffering on those innocent Tamil civilians further.

But there are strong indications that the LTTE would give up once the last terrain under their control is captured by the troops and at the same time there are strong indications that the LTTE would create mayhem inside the No Fire Zone before they breath their last.