Tigers retreat, lost in the jungles

Sri Lanka has proved, beyond any doubt, that they are in forefront of the efforts in fighting against terrorism. The Security Forces have set examples to the international community by evolving new mechanisms of countering terrorism with minimum harassment and pressures on civilian population.

The Security Forces proved their professionalism, and also their capabilities, by bringing the LTTE, claimed to be the most ruthless terror outfit in the world, to its weakest level in its two and half decade long conflict in the country, with minimum available resource, but with a leadership with a clear commitment to see and end to this bloodshed.

The Security Forces during the past one and half years proved that it was the leadership they had lacked, not the professionalism, resources or the strategies for the past two and half decades, in their bid to defeat terrorism in the country.

"It is the leadership that matters to boost the morale of the soldiers" a field commander in the East told this reporter. They believe now they have received the leadership that they were yearning for more than decades, to fight terrorism, with a free mind, sans political pressures.

The same field commander challenged a US based journalist recently, when he questioned him whether the Sri Lanka Armed Forces could fight with the most ruthless guerilla organisation by adopting conventional methods of fighting.

The Field commander said the reporter was wrong with his impression about the Sri Lanka Army and he should change his attitude towards the Sri Lanka Army in the current context, as they have put the Tiger guerillas to the level of a conventional Army by changing the role of the Army to a guerilla outfit.

Lost battles

That was the secret behind the successes the Security Forces recorded in the East. They had done those thing, because of the leadership that has given a free hand to the Security Forces to handle matters on their own placing confidence in their action.

The battles that were fought in Sampur, Vakarai, and also now in Thoppigala has brought results, due to adopting this changed strategy to fight the Tiger outfit in a jungle warfare. Therefore, it is no surprise some people are raising doubts about the victories of the Security Forces in the East as things were not familiar to them for the past two decades.

The ongoing operation in Thoppigala to liberate the areas West and South of Batticaloa bear testimony to substantiate the argument that the Tiger outfit had now dropped to the level of a conventional Army.

Tiger cadres operating in the Thoppigala jungles are now in disarray and running amock fearing incursions by the troops into their territory at any moment.

The Security Forces proved that they were capable of facing any type of assault of the Tigers, not because they are equipped with modern weaponry, which was not available to them earlier but due to the confidence that they can face any situation with a free hand taking decisions at the field commanders level.

The Tiger cadres are now making a desperate bid to escape from the Thoppigala jungles, as they are entrapped in this thick jungle from all sides without any connecting path to escape.

Their desperate bid to overrun several Army detachments along the Batticaloa-Polonnaruwa road having crossed the lagoon in Chenkaladi was an attempt to clear a path for their escape, according to military topbrass.

The Army camps in Siththandi, Chenkaladi, Mavadivembu and Kumburumulla came under artillery, mortar and multi barrel attacks of the LTTE on Tuesday midnight while two explosives-laden vehicles were reportedly heading towards Security Forces in Black bridge in Chenkaladi and the Red Bridge.

The Security Forces in these camps expected such a lightning assault on them and due to their preparedness they could repulse the Tiger attack inflicting heavy casualties to the LTTE.

According to the Army more than 150 cadres have participated in this attack, possibly half of the strength of the Tiger cadres in the Thoppigala jungles, to launch a physical assault on the troops at Mavadivembu Army detachment around 3 am on Wednesday.

The Security Forces at the Mavadivembu camp retaliated with the Tigers firing and launched a massive assault on the Tiger cadres who tried to infiltrate the camp after removing the barbed wire fences.

The LTTE too had shifted their artillery and mortar guns closer to the area to launch a massive assault and overrun the camps.

But the troops were prepared for such an attack as the Tiger cadres who surrendered to the Security Forces in Chenkaladi and Valachchenai area had given information that they were preparing for an attack on Army camps.

The only doubt the Security Forces had was the direction in which the Tiger may launch their assault. However, they were of the opinion that Tigers would find a weak point to infiltrate into the area.

After a long battle the Security Forces were able to flush the Tiger cadres back to the Thoppigala area killing more than 20.

A subsequent search operation carried out in the area by the Security Forces found eight bodies of the Tiger cadres including that of a female cadre and a large haul of weapons left behind by the fleeing Tiger cadres.

The intercepted radio transmissions revealed the names of 18 LTTE cadres killed in the battle and 40 injured cadres.

Four Security Forces personnel were killed and 17 others sustained injuries during the battle.

In this backdrop, Defence authorities are expecting more and more violent activities by the LTTE in the areas adjoining the Thoppigala jungles in the coming weeks as they have no other option but to go for suicide type of attacks either to flee from the area or to inflict damages to the Security Forces.

The most fearful factor is that they may resort to massacring Sinhalese or Muslim villages adjoining the Thoppigala jungles to put pressure on the Security Forces to put a stop to their ongoing operations.

But ground sources from Batticaloa, and the Ampara border indicates to the point that Tigers may resort to surrender to the Security Forces in large numbers in the coming weeks as they have already been demoralised due to lack of basic facilities on top of it the leadership, rather than resorting to suicide attacks as they have already realised, according to surrendered cadres that they were engaged in an unwinnable war.

According to sources more than 200 cadres so far has surrendered to the Security Forces in the East having heard that they would be looked after well by the Government.

Taking control

Amidst this situation, what the Tiger leaders in Thoppigala wanted to show through Tuesdays midnight attack was that they were capable of overrunning the Army camp and thereby tell the entire world that they still control some parts of the East despite claims to the country by the Security Forces.

But the situation in the Wanni and Jaffna would be completely different from the situation in the East in the coming weeks as Security Forces have received information about a heavy LTTE build up in the Wanni sector expecting a major offensive by the Security Forces.

Yesterday's incident at an Army road block in the Jaffna town was a clear indication that in the North the LTTE may resort to more suicide attacks in desperation to inflicts damage to the Security Forces.

The incident took place yesterday at 10:35 a.m. at a roadblock close to the Perumal Hindu Temple in Jaffna killing one soldier and injuring many others.

The large number of suicide belts, the latest type of suicide kit the Tigers have made use of to against VIP targets, indicates that they may resort to more and more suicide attacks in Jaffna as they have no upper hand in the peninsula following the closure of the A-9 road.

The situation in Wanni too will also come to that level if LTTE continue to attack Omanthai entry exit point in a bid to prevent Security Forces engaged in humanitarian operations to liberate more than 10,000 people in the Madhu area.

In this backdrop, possibilities cannot be ruled out about major LTTE attack in the South mainly in Colombo making another attempt to take VVIP target.

Adding to this background was the severe blows the LTTE had in the sea losing two of their ships within a single day in the Sea off Arugam-bay.

The loss of two ships within six hours was the highest achievement the Navy had in its 56 years history, on the contrary it might be the biggest defeat the LTTE had faced in the two and half decades long history of their battle for a separate state.

According to latest reports the Navy has now been able to bring the fleets of ships belonging to the LTTE down to two with the destruction of the two ships in the sea off Arugam bay.

That was the biggest operation the Navy had done in the sea far off the Sri Lankan coast using its limited resources to maximum. And they had brought results giving new strength to the ground troops giving assurance the LTTE will no longer strenghten with fire power as they have already lost two ship loads.

Coming back to the same argument, the Navy too had these successes as they were well aware that there is a leadership to back their actions and also to retain the risk involved in these operations.

The Navy took a risky decision when they sent four of their Offshore Petrol Vessels to the deep sea nearly 200 Nautical Miles off Sri Lankan coast almost nearing to international waters.

But the Navy was confident that they had tracked the correct ship, according to the data they have gathered for more than six months about Tiger arms smuggling network. One can imagine the calamity that may result if by any chance Navy made a mistake by attacking a wrong ship.

But they made no mistake, as they were confident of what they were doing. According to Navy sources the only thing they have informed the MoD was that they were planning this operation and were confident that they would bring results.

The Navy had contributed not only towards defeating terrorism in the Sri Lankan soil but also towards the global fight against terrorism by destroying two ships belonging to the Tiger outfit, according to latest revelations, which has connected to the global terror network.

According to Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda it was due to their commitment and dedication to collect intelligence on the LTTE arms smuggling network that resulted in these successes.

The Navy made use of its maximum resources to gain the upper hand, using four Offshore Petrol Vessels, Sagara, Suranimala, Samudura and Sayura.

Two of these OPVs left the Colombo Port on March 15, three days before the incident and entered the high seas in the Eastern coast in the sea off Kalmunai and kept alert on any suspicious craft heading towards Sri Lanka.

The other two OPVs also left Colombo on March 16 and headed in the same direction in search of the suspicious ships heading towards Sri Lanka.

The two OPVs that left Colombo on March 16 had the first clue about the suspicious LTTE ship as the echo was traced in the radars of the ship around 2.30 am on March 17.

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Karannagoda, Director General (Operations) Commodore Susith Weerasekera and Director Naval Operations Captain S.S. Ranasinghe gathered at the Operations Room of the Navy Headquarters in Colombo as they got information about the suspicious ship.

The 12 hours operations by the Navy ended at 1 pm last Sunday with the complete destruction of the two ships with the second ship been detected in the same area. They talked to the ship through the International Maritime Radio Communication Channel (Channel 16) around 7 a.m.

The Navy asked the IMO registration number (International Maritime Organization registration number), the last port of call, next port of call and details of the crew members of the ship. It took only a few minutes for the officials at the Operations Room to find that the information given by the suspicious ship was not true as they did not tally with the Lloyds Registry.

As Navy got confirmation that they have tracked the LTTE ship correctly the ship started to move towards the Western coast and the Navy fired warning shots across the bow and challenged the ship.

As the ship started fleeing without heeding the Navy orders, the Navy fired over the bow of the ship as they got confirmation that it was the exact ship they were looking for as the length of the ship and its colour corresponded with the intelligence reports.

The Navy came to this conclusion, not because they were suspicious of the ship but they could verify they were attacking the exact ship transporting arms to the LTTE through the intelligence gathered throughout the past six months.

Explosion

As the ship came under Navy fire, there was a big explosion within the ship and it sank in the 4,000 meters deep sea 195 nautical miles South East of Arugam Bay without leaving any clue.

While the drama was unfolding in the Exclusive Economic Zone in the South East of Arugam Bay, the other two ships that left Colombo on March 15 detected another ship around 20 Kilometres west of the first ship around 6.30 am.

The Operations Room of the Navy Headquarters was alerted about this ship too. The Navy talked to the ship through Channel 16. As the details given by the ship were proved wrong as the Navy engaged the ship with their guns and the ship was sunk around 12.45 pm with short explosions inside the ship.

It has now been revealed that the first ship had transported parts of three light aircraft, surface to air missiles, torpedoes, radars, night vision equipment, GPS units and outboard motors were to be delivered to the Wanni.

One could imagine the destruction that would be caused to the Security Forces by using these surface to air missiles, torpedoes that have the capability to hit both Naval and Air operation, backing the operations launched by the ground troops.

Therefore, it is now hightime for the Security Forces to be more vigilant as the Tigers may resort to a major suicidal attack, similar to Digamapotana horror or any other type of major attack targeting VVIPs.

The public also bear the responsibility to support the actions of the Security Forces since it is the public who suffer the consequences of these terror acts by the LTTE.