Defeat of LTTE:

Capturing pooneryn, a turning point

The Tissamaharama police station was facing mayhem on January 16, 2008. Every room was filled with grieving parents, mourning widows and crying children. It was the morning that the LTTE exploded a claymore in Buttala targetting a CTB bus that was carrying innocent civilians and uninjured victims were gathered at the police to give evidence against this brutal attack. That's how the year 2008 started.

The year 2008 was somewhat mysterious. From mid January civilians faced numerous terrorist attacks killing and injuring hundreds. Yet no one thought that the end would be filled with victories cornering terrorists to the far end of the country. The end of 2008 and dawn of 2009 is marked with strategic victories that turned the path towards a solid victory.

The Northern theatre of the war against terrorism launched under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Commander in Chief of the military forces went on the rampage against the brutal LTTE following the victory in the Eastern Theatre. Among the numerous strategically important achievements, capturing Devil's Point and Pooneryn on the Northwestern coastal line was a turning point. Between November 13 and 15 in 2008 Sri Lanka Army captured these two locations destroying the LTTE capabilities to attack the Jaffna peninsula.

In the entire month of December more and more important locations were captured by the Sri Lanka Military. Capture of Sinna Paranthan connected the military route to the A9 road clearing the main supply route to the entire northern theatre. Elephant Pass, the popular bottleneck and the connecting gateway to the peninsula speaks of many military legends spanning over 25 years of the infamous Eelam dream.

If there is any success story in the war against terror across the globe, the Sri Lankan Security Forces marked that in the world map with the dawn of the year 2009 with their unparalleled victories against the LTTE, the most ruthless terror outfit in the world with the capture of Paranthan and Kilinochchi.

These twin victories mark the downfall of the LTTE. Security Forces could break the backbone of the LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran through these strategic moves. The national flag fluttered in the open air in Kilinochchi after 10 years as the troops of the 57 Division and the 58 Division trod in the Kilinochchi town in the early hours of Friday, but the official declaration of the capture of Kilinochchi came in the evening with the President addressing the nation to declare victory.

It was on the eve of December 31 that the troops of the 58 Division recorded their historic victory capturing the key junction town Paranthan. It was after fierce battles that the 58 Division and the 57 Divisions reached these victories. Paranthan was the key target of the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva which captured strategically important Pooneryn town on the Western coast on November 15, whilst Kilinochchi was the key target of the 57 Division under the command of Major General Jagath Dias.

With the capture of Pooneryn the 58 Division diverted its battlefront from West to East to advance towards Paranthan and confronted heavily with the LTTE in the ditch cum bund along with the 57 Division which was on the Kilinochchi front.

The initial success of the Paranthan battle came when 58 Division troops managed to capture Sinnaparanthan located some five to six kilometres from the West of Paranthan junction. Amidst all resistance by the LTTE, the 58 Division managed to link up their positions along the earth bund from Jaffna lagoon to Pooneryn Paranthan front and continued to expand towards the South of Pooneryn-Paranthan Road towards Adampan village. The capture of Paranthan meant the LTTE losing the vital links between Jaffna front and Mullaitivu too as they could not operate through the A-35 Road once the troops capture Paranthan junction and the stretch of A-9 Road in the North of Paranthan.

Troops of 58 Division went on a wider front to Paranthan and cut off A-9 Road from 3 Km North of Paranthan a location between Paranthan and Elephant Pass whilst another column of troops cut off the A-9 Road in general area famously known as Karandi Bokkuwa which is located some four Kilometers South of Paranthan junction.

The 9 Gemunu Watch battalion under the command of Lt. Colonel Lal Chandrasiri cut off the A-9 Road from the North of Paranthan whilst troops attached to the 10 Gajaba Regiment under the command of Major Udaovita advanced from the South of Pooneryn-Paranthan Road to cut off the A-9 Road in the general area Karandibokkuwa in the North of Kilinochchi. The 12 Gemunu Watch battalion commanded by Lt. Colonel Nandana Dunuwila advanced towards the A-9 from the North of Paranthan while 17 Gemunu Watch battalion under the command of Lt. Colonel Keerthi Kottewatta advanced head on to the Paranthan junction in their bid to capture the key junction town.

Since it was a totally difficult task for the infantry troops to cross the open terrain stretching more than one and half kilometres to advance towards A-9, 58 Division troops used the 30th night and the 31st morning before the first morning light to bring in troops as close as 500 metres to the West of A-9 Road in the West of Paranthan. On December 31 morning without taking much casualties they took the area West of Paranthan junction.

The Commando troops led the battle operating ahead of the infantry troops and were supported by the artillery and armoured corps taking the Tiger positions accurately. The fighter jets and the MI-24 helicopter gunships of the Sri Lanka Air Force gave close support to the ground troops in neutralising LTTE artillery and mortar positions. With the capture of the Paranthan junction the troops of the 58 Division started to expand their front further towards Kilinochchi to the South.

Parallely, the 57 Division under the command of Major General Jagath Dias also led his troops in the West and South of Kilinochchi towards the centre. The 571 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Harendra Ranasinghe advanced towards Kilinochchi from the West whilst keeping links with 8 Gemunu Watch Battalion under the command of Lt. Colonel Vajira Welagedara who was operating in the Southern end of the 58 Division.

By December 3, the 571 Brigade operating in the West and the 572 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Dhammika Jayasundera operating in the South West of Kilinochchi have already reached the build up area of Kilinochchi town West of A-9 road. The 574 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Senaka Wijesuriya also advanced towards the vital Iranamadu junction from South of Kilinochchi amidst stiff resistance from the LTTE.

As of January 01, the troops observed a remarkable progress as they observed LTTE cadres fleeing from the Kilinochchi town loading their stuff in vehicles whilst their leadership was making desperate attempts to stop them fleeing Kilinochchi.

At the dawn of the January 2, troops of the 572 Brigade, 12 Sinha Regiment which was under the command of Lt. Colonel Indrajith Bandara and now led by its second in command, 9 Gajaba Regiment under the command of Lt. Colonel Chandana Somaweera, and 4 Sinha Regiment entered the centre of Kilinochchi after advancing one kilometre across the build up area in the West of Kilinochchi.

The 3 Gajaba Regiment and the 9 Vijayaba Infantry regiment under the 572 Brigade entered the Kilinochchi town from the North of Iranamadu junction.

The 8 Sri Lanka Infantry Regiment under the command of Lt. Colonel Epsitha Dissanayake, 10 Sri Lanka Light Infantry battalion under the command of Major Samantha and 16 Sinha Regiment battalion under the command of Major Dhammika Dissanayake took control of the area upto the telecom tower in the South of Kilinochchi.

One major obstacle they faced was the 30 mm cannon famously known as pedal gun of the LTTE that directed fire at the advancing troops who shifted that gun from the area by Friday afternoon to ensure the area is safe to declare Kilinochchi fully liberated.

With the capture of Kilinochchi and Paranthan, troops advanced further in the Eastern direction to capture strategic Puthukuduiruppu and Vishvamadu areas.

DY