LTTE moves to shift out

Military action in Puthukudiyiruppu bring positive results:

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

As the Security Forces are engaged in the final lap of the operation outside the No-Fire-Zone, North East of Puthukudiyiruppu where LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and other top rung leaders had fled to, the Tiger outfit is seemingly engaged in a process to shift their operations to the next phase of the Eelam War.

Totally crushed by the Security Forces after the fourth Eelam War which commenced in July 2006 from Mavil Aru, LTTE has deprived 30,000 people in the Trincomalee south their basic need, water.

Take up the challenge of rescuing trapped civilians to finish off the war, the Security Forces are now inching towards the edges of the No-Fire-Zone on all fronts whilst 58 Division troops continued their search and clear operations inside the belly areas surrounded by the 58 and 53 Divisions after a big military maneuvere encircling hundreds of Tiger cadres inside.

It is now clear why LTTE was strongly defending that terrain for the past few weeks without allowing the troops to reach closer to that area as troops are in the process of recovering many military and private assets belonging to Tiger leader Prabhakaran.

Luxury house

It is learnt that the Tiger leader had lived in the stretch, the Security Forces have located a luxury house believed to have been used by the Tiger leader. On Friday evening the 58 Division troops located the luxury house and the super luxury limousine bullet proof car along with four other burnt vehicles.

Troops strongly believe that Prabhakaran had lived there until the area was surrounded by the 58 and 53 Division troops.

The LTTE was surprisingly taken by the 58 Division and the 53 Division encircling nearly two square km stretch from 2 Km from the rear of the existing Forward Defences in what was the biggest ever military manoeuvre during the Vanni liberation.

The 11 Sri Lanka Light Infantry Regiment and the 20 Gajaba Regiment attached to the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva made the move from the Northern direction from the Puthumathalan Lagoon terrain to reach Pachchapulmudai junction on the Puthukudiyiruppu-Ampalavanpokkanai Road, the last road connecting to the No-Fire-Zone.

Lagoon stretch

They came across the lagoon stretch which is some two kilometres East of the Front Lines where fierce fighting was going on between the 58 Division troops and the LTTE.

Whilst the 58 Division was moving from the North to South, the 53 Division made a South to North move from the A-35 road to link up with the 58 Division.

Brigadier Chagi Gallage commanded the troops as the Acting Commander of the 53 Division during the operation and Major General Kamal Gunaratne who was on leave joined the operation on Thursday.

The 11 SLLI troops, under the command of Lt. Colonel Kithsiri Ekanayake, made a surprise move to Pachchapulmudai junction on the Puthukudiyiruppu-Ampalavanpokkanai Road by Wednesday connecting to the No-Fire-Zone.

Fierce fighting erupted in this terrain as many Tiger leaders attempted to flee in double cabs and other vehicles which were attacked from all directions by the ground troops killing a number of Tiger cadres.

With the capture of the Pachchapulmudai junction the 11 SLLI troops linked up with the 5 Vijayaba Infantry Regiment troops south of Pachchapulmudai junction completing the mission of encircling more than one square km, that was strongly held by the LTTE with the intention of dragging on the war for another several weeks.

Intercepted radio communication of the LTTE indicated that the top level leadership of the LTTE was aware of the move by the Security Forces at the last moment and have slipped away from the area even without informing the Tiger cadres trapped inside this terrain.

Escaped

It has been reliably learnt that the even Prabhakaran or Pottu Amman had also escaped from the area few hours before troops encircled the area.

However, they have left the most elite commandoes of the LTTE to defend the terrain, might be with the objective of regaining that terrain.

There was information that Bhanu and Lawrence had escaped from the area a few minutes before troops encircled the area.

Therefore, the cadres, who were operating there inside that terrain had to fight back with the Security Forces to break open an escape route also were captured by the 58 Division backed by Commando and Special Forces troops.

By yesterday noon troops attached to the 58 Division continued their search and clear operations inside the belly area they had encircled and as of yesterday more than 70 Tiger cadres were killed there.

On Friday, the troops came across another 130 mm heavy artillery gun inside the area. The recovered guns very clearly indicate that they were preparing for massive scale attack on advancing Security Forces.

In addition, the LTTE last Monday attempted to shift another 130 mm artillery gun into North-East of Puthukudiyirippu mounted on a tractor aimed at firing heavy artillery guns in direct roll so that the troops cannot reach.

Normally these 130 mm artillery guns are used for indirect fire to restrict movements, but when it is used in direct roll it can cause massive damages.

But this move by the LTTE was located in advance by Brigadier Shavendra Silva and Artillery Brigade Commander Brigadier Priyantha Napagoda and Air Force Co-ordinator to the 58 Division who were monitoring the activities of the LTTE through the video footage of the UAV connected to the 58 Division, and prompt action taken to launch artillery fire towards the moving artillery gun mounted tractor and ground troops were informed about the move and they too fired towards the tractor which was heading towards the Forward Defences.

On information received from the 58 Division Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka called Air Force fighter jets to take the target. Soon after, Kfir fighter jets airborne from Katunayake destroyed the moving tractor particulary damaging the 130 mm gun avoiding had shifted massive damages to the advancing troops.

As ground troops were advancing towards the No-Fire-Zone, the LTTE also tried to attack the advancing troops, using their suicide boats and Fast Attack Craft.

Ground troops and Naval troops advanced towards the No Fire Zone overcoming the LTTE cadres.

Foiled

The 55 Division, under the command of Brigadier Prasanna Silva operating North of Puthumathalan and advancing towards the Northern edge of the No-Fire-Zone foiled numerous Sea Tiger assault attempts in doing so in the narrow edge in Thevavetti and Puthumathalan, and came across five LTTE earth bunds.

The Naval troops, operating in the sea off Chalai and Chundikulam also foiled some more attempted Sea Tiger assaults on the ground troops while Sri Lanka Navy elite Special Boat Squadron (SBS) sea units deployed in the Northeastern coastal waters intercepted a group of LTTE boats in the early hours of Saturday around 01.30 a.m.

According to Navy sources, there were 10 LTTE boats including 3 suicide craft and 7 attack craft launched from Puthumathalan coast in the No-Fire-Zone and made attempts to make a southward-bound move. One Tiger craft was destroyed by the Naval fire and another damaged. Another boat, which attempted to land in Alampil, was destroyed by ground troops.

The remaining elite boats fled carrying their casualties and landed in the No-Fire-Zone taking cover of the trapped civilians inside. Three Naval craft received minor damages and two sailors were injured in the incident.

As pressure on the LTTE is very high these days, possibilities are very high of them fleeing in their fast attack craft with the protection of flotilla of suicide boats.

Intelligence agencies so far have confirmed that there had been numerous boat movements from the Northern sea towards Indian waters during the months of February and March. They confirmed that there had been 19 boat movements to India in February and 12 boat movements in March.

The Indian coast guard and the Navy were on alert after receipt of the information that number of Tiger cadres had infiltrated into Southern Indian coasts by boats.

The Sri Lanka Navy was able to apprehend some of the boats which were heading towards India in the sea off Point Pedro and arrested some of the families who tried to escape to India.

It has become very difficult task for the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard to apprehend these boats believed to have infiltrated in to Indian waters mingling with the Indian fishing trawlers.

On alert

According to reliable sources many friendly countries like India and Malaysia are on alert that family members of the top rung Tiger leaders have escaped to their countries and the LTTE is in the process of sending the family members of other top rung Tiger cadres into India.

Therefore, the intelligence analysts indicate that the LTTE is in the process of shifting their well trained cadres into Indian soil to operate from there once their last bid to survive in Sri Lanka failed

Strong indications are there that LTTE is going to operate outside Sri Lanka for its next stage of Eelam War once they are defeated in the Sri Lankan soil.

First they have to fight with the LTTE and defeat them inside the No-Fire-Zone. Secondly they have to rescue the civilians trapped inside this terrain with zero or minimum casualties among civilians.

Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka told this reporter that the Security Forces are determined to face this challenge too to complete their mission of liberating the country from LTTE terrorism completely.

Five offensive Divisions the 58, 53, 55, 59 and Task Force 8 is ready to take up this challenge very soon once they reached the real boundaries of the No-Fire-Zone from all directions as they have so far proven their capability to evacuate civilians from the conflict zone with minimum damages to them. Therefore, the world’s largest civilian rescue operation is due to unfold in the Mullaitivu North very soon proving the metal of the Sri Lankan Security Forces ending Asia’s longest conflict.