Vakarai saga

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In the wee hours of Friday, the Special Forces Commandos entered Vakarai, the culmination of three months of military action to capture the last Tiger bastion in the East. Early reports from the coastal village said the Tigers were retreating towards South of Verugal.

Heavy fighting flared up on Thursday and Friday morning as the Tiger formations, stranded in the pockets of Vakarai sought to hold on their territory. Four soldiers were killed in LTTE mortar fire in Ichchalampattu.

Friday afternoon, SF commandos entered the town including the Vakarai hospital, which housed a large number of civilians seeking refuge.

As the troops entered the Tiger grip of the town collapsed, civilians in EN MASSE fled the besieged coastal town seeking refugee in the Government Controlled area.

The capture of Vakarai was the culmination of three months of jungle warfare by the Special Force commandos, whose unique form of small team operations almost crippled the Tiger hold in the coastal strip of Vakarai and Kathiraveli.

The SF commandos who operated in jungles of Vakarai for weeks disrupted the Tiger war machinery through a series of covert and overt missions. They disrupted administrative and supply routes and communication, ambushed Tiger convoys and directed air and artillery strikes on the identified Tiger positions.

The Military action gathered stem early last week as the security forces advanced from two directions, from Panichchankerny in the South and Ichchalampattu in the North. On Thursday, troops advanced from its defence lines in Kajuwatta, forcing the Tigers to pull back from their third defence line in Panichchankerny. The troops also captured the Panichchankeny Bridge, linking the A 15 road.

Another team of security forces advanced from Ichchalampattu, taking control of Uppural and Ichchalampattu area. Heavy fighting flared up as the Tigers offered stiff resistance to halt the security forces advance.

No information

No information was available by Saturday on the whereabouts of the Tiger artillery guns. However, even by Friday night, the LTTE directed artillery and mortar fire on the security forces advancing Northwards from Vakarai. Special Forces were advancing towards Kathiraveli. The Tiger artillery guns were believed to have been positioned in Komathalamadu and Kathiraveli, 5- 10 Km North from Vakarai. Air Force fighter jets carried out several sorties over LTTE gun positions North of Vakarai on Friday after the ground troops called for air support.

Earlier it was estimated that the LTTE had positioned about seven artillery guns in several locations of Vakarai, Palchenai and Kathiraveli.

Military sources on Saturday said the Tigers were in a frantic bid to escape as the security forces advanced. According to some unconfirmed reports Tiger political leader in Trincomalee Elilan has fled via sea to the North of Trincomalee. The Navy has set up a cordon to prevent the escape of Tiger cadres. There were also reports of LTTE teams retreating towards North of Trincomalee through jungle footpaths.

LTTE's superior knowledge in the terrain stands for their gain as the fleeing Tigers use jungle routes in their escape.

Indeed, as earlier developments indicated, the LTTE has been in a gradual pull out from Vakarai. A few weeks ago, the LTTE relocated most of its Supply and Administrative Units as well as Female Tiger formations out of Vakarai. The Tiger leader in Trincomalee, Soornam, relocated himself from Vakarai to the North of Trincomalee.

Another big shot

Avuru, - who was second in command of Soornam in Trincomalee was killed in an Ambush by the Special Forces several weeks ago - The Navy seized his coffin when a Naval patrol craft intercepted the sea Tiger boat carrying it, escorted by another boat. And another big shot in the Tiger military hierarchy Weeraman was killed three weeks ago.

Even as the Tigers were desperately trying to hold Vakarai, intercepted Tiger communications revealed a lowering morale within the Tiger ranks. Security Forces commanders could listen to verbal dual between ground commanders of the Tigers and Soornam. A Split within the Tiger ranks, based on geographical base - East Vs North also surfaced, which the security forces described as anticipated fallout in such a situation.

The exodus of civilian was the first signal of the collapse of the Tiger hold in Vakarai.

The town was almost emptied by Saturday morning as civilians fled to Government controlled areas.

Over five thousand civilians arrived via the Mankerny-Kajuwatta entry points and several hundred civilians fled towards Ichchalampattu.

Civilians arrived in tractors - reports said approximately 200 tractor loads of civilians have arrived in Mankerny - and some trekked the inhospitable jungle footpaths to reach the Government controlled area.

Local government officials and security forces were in the process of housing civilians in temporary camps.

However, as reports indicate, the pockets of LTTE cadres would like to offer resistance to the advancing security forces.

The official website of the LTTE peace Secretariat admitted that the LTTE cadres had vacated Vakarai.

"On 19, January, LTTE has decided to pull back from Panichchankerny which is on the access route to Vakarai," it reported.

The LTTE military spokesman, Rasaiah Ilantharian alias Marshal said the Tigers had withdrawn from Vakarai.

He told the pro-LTTE Tamilnet website that the "LTTE has no fighters in Vakarai village."

Indeed, for the last few weeks, intelligence reports indicated that the Tigers were in a gradual withdrawal from Vakarai. Several teams of the LTTE heading towards Thoppigala were ambushed in identified crossing points between Punani and Valachchenai during the last few weeks.

On Thursday night, the security forces deployed in Sirimangalapura ambushed a team of LTTE cadres fleeing Vakarai. According to field reports there were 150 LTTE cadres in the team. The LTTE cadres were heading towards Trincomalee North. The LTTE left one dead cadre and several Rocket Propel Launchers, and fled the area. Security Forces sources said the troops inflicted heavy casualties on the fleeing cadres.

Senior Military officials referring to intercepted Tiger transmissions said they talked of heavy casualties. Further information was not available.

Vakarai

Vakarai, given its geographical location functioned as a main launching pad for the Sea Tigers. Sea Tigers conducted several sea transport of its cadres between Mullaitivu and Vakarai as agreed by the government and the LTTE on the agreement on the sea transport of Tiger cadres between the North and East. During the Karuna revolt against Prabhakaran, Tigers conducted a sea borne attack, having landed in Vakarai. The Karuna fighters camped on the bank of Verugal river were taken by surprise by the Tigers who attacked from the rear. This surprising Good Friday offensive as it was later called forced Karuna to disband his troops and go underground.

Vakarai fell in to the hands of the LTTE only after the security forces camps in the area were withdrawn to reinforce the Operation Jaya Sikuru, which envisaged to open a land route to the Jaffna Peninsula.

The last security forces operation was conducted in 1997 to clear the LTTE presence in Vakarai.

The Loss of Vakarai would be more of a morale blow to the Tigers, who now find it increasingly difficult to reinforce its propaganda of parity with the security forces through its battlefront performance.

With the collapse of Vakarai, which was home to 35,000 population - including Internally Displaced from Sampur and Muttur - the Tiger control in the East would be confined to a few pockets of villagers in the East. However, the LTTE would find it increasingly difficult to sustain its hold in the remaining pockets. The loss of Sampur had a domino effect on the Tigers, which saw its grip gradually loosening in the face of an assertive military strategy.

Government's strategy

As far as the East in concerned, the government's strategy is both military and political. Even though, its greater incline at the moment is towards a stepped up military action, it seems to be a part of greater political strategy.

The Army Commander Lt. Gen Sarath Fonseka outlined the military plan when he said that the troops would clear the East out of the LTTE.

Civil rule

The government's political strategy seems to be to establish civil rule in the East, having secured the area.

Investment Promotion Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has spoken of a greater development plan for Trincomalee District which include infrastructure development, an industrial park, tourism promotion and a coal power plant, for which the agreement has already been signed with India.

The very idea of consolidating the government control in the East, would be of great political advantage for the government. As the Nation gets set to mark its 59th Independence anniversary, military gains in the East would be of symbolic importance.

Despite, the economic fallout and security situation and military expenditure, the gains in the East is indicative of the success of the government's assertive military strategy against the LTTE.