Aborted LTTE air raid, a move to boost its image

Time for vigilance for southerners:

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

The LTTE is left with only a few more moves to escape from in pending defeat at the hands of the Security Forces with troops knocking on the doors of their strongest administrative and military bases in Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu.

But the so called leadership of the LTTE is aware that they have left with only a few shortcuts to escape from this situation.

They should either cause a huge humanitarian tragedy in the Wanni and blame it on the Security Forces and to get take the international community to exert pressures on the Government to halt the military thrust on their fortresses in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.

The LTTE is trying its best to bring about create this human tragedy in Wanni by mobilising hundreds of thousand civilians entrapped in Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu districts around their strategically important military bases and hideouts of the Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

With such a mobilisation of civilians in Kilinochchi, reportedly around on this Iranamadu, where the LTTE is having their sensitive military installations, they can easily risk the lives of the civilians making a human on this ground when countering indirect firepower of the Security Forces now marching towards this sensitive ground from various directions taking the cover of this human shield.

That is the easiest shortcut the LTTE is left with at this juncture to deviate from the humiliating defeat they are going to face in the coming weeks. Having experienced such situations in the past the Security Forces and the Government have drawn plans to effectively face this situation.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in a very rare appearance before the media at the Foreign Ministry explained the way the Government has planned to face the situation. He said that the Security Forces had taken maximum precautions to see that minimise casualties to civilians at any battle to capture Tiger held areas.

The pro-LTTE Tamilnet website also indicated that SLAF helicopters had dropped leaflets to civilians in Wanni to leave the areas in Wanni and arrive in Vavuniya through the Omanthai entry exit point as intense fighting is expected to erupt in Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu in the coming weeks.

However, the iron grip of the LTTE has to be lifted for them to arrive in Vavuniya as the LTTE follow a strict pass system when allowing civilians to arrive in Government controlled areas to attend to their needs.

But the LTTE cannot maintain this pressure for a long period as dozens of civilians from Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu districts have already commenced arriving in Government controlled areas through the Eastern coast and the Western coast defying the Tiger orders, but paying their life’s saving wealth to the boat owners.

So the possibility of using the civilians entrapped in Wanni to create a massive human tragedy is becoming a remote option for the LTTE due to extreme carefulness of the Security Forces when conducting air raids and firing long range artillery into Tiger territory.

Another option the LTTE had left with at this juncture is to create an uncertain situation in the South by means of deploying its suicide squadrons to target VVIPs who have a strong say in military matters, highly sensitive economic targets which can create economic instability in the South and taking civilian targets which can create shock waves across the country strong enough to change the mindset of the common masses who are now strongly backing the Government to defeat the LTTE militarily.

Such an option is viable at any moment in the South as LTTE cadres are still operating in the South taking the cover of innocent Tamil civilians peacefully living with the other communities.

But, the recent recoveries by the Police and the Security Forces have exposed the Tiger networks recently established in the South. The extreme vigilance of the Security Forces, the Police and the common masses has given no room for the LTTE to go ahead with their terror plans.

But at this decisive juncture that vigilance of the public and also of the Security Forces and the Police has to be maintained at its highest level as any room for the LTTE to implement their terror plans in the south specially targeting the innocent civilians will make a big impact on the status quo to turn the situation in favour of the LTTE.

The LTTE also has the possibility to make use of their suicide squadrons in the Forward Defences in the Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu fronts to inflict massive damage on the advancing troops and break the momentum they had reached by this time capturing so-called impregnable LTTE strongholds.

Though it is not an unusual thing for Sri Lankans to observe a large number of war casualties at once, creating such a situation at stage juncture of the war would create a big impact on the morale of the troops now fearlessly facing the enemy in Tiger territory.

Another viable move left with the Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is to create a politically uncertain situation in the South by compelling various organisations to stage protests against the Government on for various reasons.

Such a move was effectively overcome by the Government at the last week Provincial Council Election for the North Central and the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Councils.

The LTTE attempted through many cats paws to change the public opinion on military achievements against the LTTE. But the LTTE miserably failed in its covert operation launched through political parties of the main opposition as the common masses strongly lined up to strengthen the hands of the Government.

Tiger Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Tuesday night made use of one of his triumph cards he usually uses when they are facing a desperate situation. He made use of his obsolete air power to boost its dwindling image sending two of its aircraft to carry out another desperate attack, this time targeting the Navy Base in Trincomalee.

Though, it was not clear from where these two aircraft took off, the radar system of the SLAF detected these two aircraft which were flying under cloudy whether conditions from Mullaittivu to Trincomalee direction.

The SLAF radars detected the two aircraft when they were flying 66 Kilometres and 40 kilometres from Trincomalee.

Therefore, the Security Forces had only a few minutes to direct the relevant authorities to take precautionary action. However, as they were well aware that the two aircraft were heading towards Trincomalee, instructions were dispatched immediately to switch off lights in the entire city and suburbs.

Few minutes after detecting the two aircraft, they reached the outskirts of the Trincomalee harbour. The Jet Liner the troops carrying vessel was there inside the Trincomalee harbour at that time preparing to load 3,000 troops bound for the Jaffna peninsula.

It was raining when the two aircraft reached Trincomalee harbour area. The air defence system and the anti aircraft guns were activated and directed towards the direction the sound of the air craft came.

It was not possible to detect the two low flying aircraft due to darkness and under cloudy and the rainy weather condition prevailed around Trincomalee at 9.05 p.m.

According to observers one aircraft turned away with the activation of the air defence system and the anti aircraft guns but the other pilot managed to enter the skies of the Naval Base and dropped two crude bombs within the Naval Dockyard close to a Mess of sailors.

Four sailors were reportedly killed and twenty odd sailors sustained injuries due to the explosion of this crude bomb. Ten were admitted to Trincomalee hospital and few of them later transferred to Colombo for further treatments. The other bomb dropped into the Naval Base unexploded.

Amidst all fires directed at the low flying aircraft, they managed to fly back to Mullaitivu direction while interceptors were airborne from Katunayake and various other places. It was the time factor and due to the difficulty in detecting low flying aircraft the SLAF unable to catch the two aircraft this time too.

But the LTTE could not achieve the objective of causing any damage to the Jet Liner which was within the Trincomalee harbour at that time.

If the LTTE managed to at least to drop one crude bomb into the Jet Liner at a time 3,000 troops boarded into the ship the damage they could have caused would have been much bigger. But the Security Forces effectively foiled the desperate attempts of the LTTE though they could not catch and destroy the two aircraft of the LTTE.

Jet Liner, the link between Jaffna and the South has been a high profile target of the LTTE for the past few months. Later around midnight another unfortunate incident occurred when another dinghy boat providing security in the inner harbour area to prevent any underwater threat to the harbour from divers, as a charger they tried throw into the sea prematurely exploded inside the dinghy killing two more sailors.

Though this incident could not make a big impact on the overall military situation the LTTE may resort to more and more desperate attempts to turn the unfavorable situation that leads to their certain defeat at the hands of the Security Forces.

The incident that occurred yesterday in Pettah would have been an early warning for creating such an uncertain situation in the South in the wake of the certain defeat lingering around them in Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu as disarming and the political negotiations are not the desired options for the LTTE leader to see an end to the problem.

Therefore, it is important for the South be on constant vigil all the time at this decisive moment where the Security Forces are above to reach the peak of their victory against the LTTE in the coming weeks.

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Troops set to liberate Mallavi

Mallavi is almost under troops control and Nachchikuda is about to fall soon With the capture of Thunukkai troops attached to all four military advancing towards Tiger strongholds in Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu districts capturing more vital grounds in the Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts.

Troops are now poised to capture yet another massive Tiger stronghold which had never been touched by the Security Forces for the past two and half decades like Thunukkai which is located four Kilo meters West of Mallavi.

Troops attached to the 573 Brigade under the command of the 573 Brigade has already moved into the Mallavi town which is considerably a bigger town than Thunukkai where the LTTE had many of their commercial establishments including banks and offices of the INGOs operating in Wanni.

Troops have also come across a Tiger Base where a senior leader of the LTTE would have operated. LTTE has already abandoned the Mallavi town which is linked to Yogapuram village from the south as major supply routes have been cut off to this town from Mankulam from the east, Thunukkai from the west and Alankulam from the North West with the capture of the Alankulam village on Tuesday evening.

It was after fierce fighting in the South of Mallavi, in the Vavunikulam tank area troops were able to take the upper hand against the LTTE.

With the capture of Mallavi the Mankulam town located on Jaffna Kandy A-9 road from the East of Mallavi is poised to fall to the Security Forces hands since there is no big distance between Mallavi and Mankulam.

The capture of Palamoddai town by the troops attached to the Task Force -II operating North West of Omanthai the Tiger strongholds located along the North of Omanthai too are poised to fall compelling the Tiger cadres holding the A-9 road North of Omanthai to withdraw further northwards.

The 59 Division operating under the command of Brigadier Nandana Udawatta made a tactical move on Thursday linking the troops operating in the Mullaitivu south front linked troops into the beach front in Ulathuveli two kilometers south of Nayaru. With this move the northern most Forward Defence Line in the Eastern coast went further Northward further restricting the Sea Tiger movements in the Eastern coast too.

Meanwhile, troops are now confronting the enemy in the South of Nayaru further exposing clandestine Tiger bases in the Mullaitivu jungle.

Another Brigade attached to the 59 Division is confronting the LTTE in Thannimurippukulam area in the South East of Oddusudan. They have already taken control of the tank bund of the Thannimuruppukulm tank the sole water resource available for the jungle patches in the Mullaitivu jungle.

As troops attached to 57 Division and 59 Division are making these strategic moves the 58 Division operating under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva is making another decisive move yesterday with a massive air support from the SLAF to capture the areas in the West of Vannerikulam and East of Nachchikuda to capture a vital section of the earth bund constructed between Nachchikuda and Akkarayankulam South which is a gateway to open gates to capture Kilinochchi.

Fierce fighting is expected to erupt in this terrain as Tiger leaders have already deployed its well trained cadres into the battlefront to face the Security Forces to defend their territory.

But troops are poised to face this decisive phase effectively disregarding the casualty rates since this obstacle cannot be overcome without suffering casualties as every inch captured in this terrain is with vital importance for the LTTE as it is the heart of their illusive undeclared Tamil Eelam.

With these moves Nachchikuda Sea Tiger base is tipped to be fallen to the hands of the Security Forces as the Tiger cadres operating in Nachchikuda cannot survive their with all their supply routes from Kilinochchi side are cut off from the West.