Taking of strategic Thampanai village

Following the Eastern Liberation, the Silavathura operation which was completed on September 02, 2007, was the major achievement of the Sri Lankan military. The Liberation of South of Mannar brought big relief to the Security Forces as it relieved the fears about military convoys plying on the Medawachchiya-Mannar A-14 road being targeted by the LTTE. Now the SLA was in a very good position to focus more attention on the Wanni front.

Many youth were inspired by the success of the Sri Lanka military in the East and also by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s determination to fully crush LTTE terrorists. They believed that it was the correct time to make their contribution towards their motherland.

As mentioned in the previous article, it was long before the launch of operation Silavathura, SLA established its new offensive Division to commence the Wanni liberation operation. The new Division was first headed by Brigadier Sumith Manawadu and commenced operations from Kalmadu area West of Vavuniya.

But it was not an easy task to fight a solo battle in the thick jungles in the West of A-9 road and the North of Vavuniya-Mannar road. They had to take the brunt of the wider LTTE front when making any attempt to, move forward through this jungle terrain.

However, the infantry battalions who had undergone Special Infantry Operations Training took the challenge of operating in those thick jungles.

The 57 Division, which was formed on February 26, 2007 had four infantry battalions 8 Sri Lanka Light Infantry (8 SLLI), 4 Vijayaba Infantry Regiment (4 VIR), 6 Vijayaba Infantry Regiment (6 VIR) and 7 Sri Lanka Light Infantry Regiment (7 SLLI).

The 571 Brigade was operating from Kalmadu Keerisuddan direction, 572 Brigade towards Periyathampanai, Madhu direction and 573 Brigade towards Vilathikulam direction.

The initial battle to take control of the LTTE Forward Defence Line hugging the Vavuniya-Mannar road was launched on March 23 upto March 26 since it was the main obstacle the Security Forces had to overcome to commence their forward march towards Wanni.

The attack was launched by 8 SLLI troops under the command of Lt. Col. Rohan Santhanam, 6 VIR troops under the command of Major Thalwatta and 4 VIR troops under the command of Major Wijenayake.

During this initial attack on the Tiger FDLs 12 soldiers were killed whilst 6 officers and 91 other rankers sustained injuries. Fierce battle erupted for three days with rains of mortars being exchanged between the Army and the LTTE terrorists. It resulted in the deaths of 45 Tiger cadres and the capture of the Tiger bunker line towards the direction of the road leading to Madhu from Mannar-Vavuniya road. The 572 Brigade which led this battle was commanded by Lt. Colonel V.D.P. Abeynayake.

After the capture of the LTTE bunker lines there were many attempts by the LTTE to recapture their lost terrain. The attempts of the troops to advance from that defence line faced with stiff resistance from the LTTE.

Whilst 571 Brigade under the Command of Colonel G.V. Ravipriya and the 573 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Gamage were operating towards Keerisuddan and Vilattikulam the 572 Brigade made many attempts to move towards Thampanai and Periyathampanai which were strongly dominated by the LTTE.

The LTTE did not want to lose Thampanai village at any cost as they were aware that losing Thampanai meant lot to them.

On May 6, 2007 once again heavy confrontation erupted between the Security Forces and the LTTE as LTTE made an attempt to recapture their bunker lines the Security Forces dominated. During fierce battles one officer was killed and nine soldiers sacrificed their lives. Thirty others were wounded. The LTTE also suffered heavily with 75 of their cadres killed and 108 sustaining injuries.

As 57 Division troops attempted to move forward from their defences, the LTTE made use of various tactics to thwart their attempts. The LTTE made use of the Army’s leniency towards the civilian population to their advantage to infiltrate the area through the Omanthai entry-exit point which was opened for the public, three days a week.

Villagers, living peacefully with the help of the Army, were used to collect details of the gun positions of the Security Forces as many of the Army gun positions were located closer to civilian settlement. The 16 Battalion of the Artillery Regiment at Pompaimadu, west of Vavuniya, was one such gun position where the Army had its 130 mm artillery guns.

According to intelligence sources, five to six Tiger cadres had infiltrated to the Government held area in Pompaimadu Northwest of Vavuniya equipped with ground positioning equipment, military communication sets, compasses, binoculars, night vision devices and satellite images to direct artillery fire to the gun positions.

They infiltrated the Pompaimadu gun position of the Security Forces mingling with the civilians.

It was around 8 p.m. on June 2, 2007, the Tigers’ 130 artillery rounds started to fall on Pompaimadu artillery gun position.The forth artillery round fell exactly within the artillery position while the previous three artillery rounds did not fall on target.

Tiger cadres on the Artillery Observation Post close to Pomapaimadu gun position with the help of the high tech equipment were not only able to correct their target but also communicated with the LTTE gun position which was about 30 Kilometres away from Pampaimadu gun position to redirect the artillery fire on to the correct target.

During this attack eight rounds of 130 mm artillery rounds had fallen to the ammo dump in the gun position creating huge explosions in the vicinity.

The Tiger artillery fire destroyed the ammo dump where 763 rounds of 130 mm artillery rounds were stored and 50 artillery rounds.

With the intercepted Tiger communications the Security Forces detected the Tiger artillery position and later neutralised the gun position located in Palampiddi area with the support of the Sri Lanka Air Force.

As the major blast was taking place in Pompaimadu the Tiger cadres launched an assault on the troops operating in Paliyakulam area on the Palampiddi-Vavuniya road. The troops were operating two kilometres ahead of the FDL West of Omanthai.

The Security Forces deployed troops as a part of the operations to neutralise Tiger gun positions ahead of the Security Forces’ defences in East and West of Madhu.

The troops that operated in Paliyankulam area, readjusted their defences in the face of the Tiger assault and later recaptured the area flushing out Tiger cadres.

As the Tiger fire was directed at Pompaimadu gun position, the LTTE cadres also launched a simultaneous attack on troops operating in Vavunaperiyakulam on the Vilanthikulam-Vavuniya road. Tiger cadres infiltrated into the defences compelling the troops to adjust their defences.

On June 5, the Tiger cadres in Thampanai-Madhu-Parayanalankulam launched another attack on the Security Forces around 4 p.m. The area was located three kilometres north of the Security Forces FDL west of Omanthai. Troops repulsed the Tiger attack that came from the northern direction that killed four Tiger cadres.

On the same day, around 2 p.m., the troops at Mundimuruppu-Vavuniya also came under Tiger assault but tactically to countered the attack.

Once the Tiger cadres withdrew from the area in face of heavy resistance from the troops they were again ambushed by the troops killing 20 Tiger cadres.

During the battles on June 2, 2007 in Pompaimadu, Vavunaperiyakulam, 62 Tiger cadres were killed and 89 sustained injuries.

The Security Forces too suffered heavily losing 17 soldiers out of which 15 bodies were recovered. They accepted two bodies identified as soldiers after the LTTE handed over 15 bodies to the Security Forces through the ICRC. Eighty one soldiers were injured during these battles.

Intercepted radio communications of the LTTE confirmed that 11 Tiger leaders were among the 86 Tiger cadres killed in the confrontation in the battles on June 2, 3 and 5. In addition to this, 89 cadres were injured. The LTTE announced the names of Arivannan and Kutti in the self-styled rank of ‘Captain’, eight leaders Anandan, Kandaikumar, Kanaruban, Ariyan, Murali, Kandakumaran, Kanawanan and Kalai Cheliyan in the ranks of ‘Lieutenant’ and ‘Second Lieutenant’ Purachchi among the leaders killed.

According to information, more than 500 cadres had participated in those battles as one leader was commanding nearly 40 Tiger cadres.

Following these fierce battles Brigadier Jagath Dias from the Gajaba Regiment took over the command of the 57 Division on June 12, 2007. The main concentration of 57 Division at the time was to capture Thampanai village as many of their attempts were thwarted by the LTTE. However, the troops never lost control of the original territory they were controlling prior to commencing the Wanni liberation operation.

The LTTE had the benefit of the ground as they could halt any attempt by the Security Forces to reach the village.

At this point Special Forces troops were deployed to the battle front so that they could engage in rescue missions to identify the LTTE mortar and gun positions since the LTTE was posing major threats towards the advancing troops through mortar attacks. The 1 SF troops were deployed in the area for deep penetration operations.

On July 14, 2007 there was a major confrontation between the troops and the LTTE. Fighting continued for more than two days in the outskirts of Thampanai village. The 7 SLLI, 8 SLLI and 4 VIR troops faced this attack which was led by Tiger leaders Lakashman and Bhanu. The LTTE posed a major resistance to the advancing troops as they thought that the troops were trying to cut off the Thampanai village from the Northern direction.

During this confrontation both Security Forces and the LTTE suffered heavily. During the battle 14 soldiers were killed and 69 were injured. On the LTTE side there had been over 100 deaths as they came in waves.

Many of these battles were fought unnoticed to the public but rumours started to spread all over the country as LTTE, through its propaganda machine distributed false figures about casualty figures of the Security Forces. However, the Security Forces also started to counter these false propaganda.

It was on September 06, 2007 that Lt. Colonel Senerath Bandara, who was the Colonel GS of the 57 Division, took over the command of the 572 Brigade which was heading towards the Thampanai village along the Madhu road.

The Brigade comprised 10 SLLI under Lt. Colonel Jagath Kodithuwakku, 7 SLLI under Lt. Colonel Ranjith Abeyratne and 7 SR under the command of Lt. Colonel. Palitha Fernando.

The 572 Brigade started to deploy its troops in the West and East of Madhu road leading through Thampanai village.

By this time 7 SR battalion was taken over by Lt. Colonel Kithsiri Liyanage. The infantry troops also now started to go on 48 hours rescue missions. They found that lesser number of Tiger cadres were operating there. Therefore, they started to destroy their bunkers and mortar positions one by one launching unexpected attacks from unexpected directions.At this point, troops realised that the LTTE had booby trapped and mined all the houses and buildings in the village as they faced unexpected attacks from the troops. The 7 SR troops who operated from the East of Madhu road East of Thampanai village, cut off the Northern entry point of the village, totally cutting off supplies to the village from Madhu.

With this move, the LTTE realised that they could not operate there anymore and abandoned the village enabling the 57 Division troops to clear its first major obstacle in the Wanni liberation operation as 572 Brigade troops took full control of the Thampanai village on December 26, 2007 ending months long battles to capture this strategically important village.