Desperate LTTE attempts to reverse Security Forces’ victories

Last week the Security Forces faced one of the most challenging tasks in their efforts to defeat LTTE terrorism, when a large influx of civilians commenced arriving in Government controlled areas in Vanni.

On the one hand, it was a sigh a sigh of relief for the Security Forces though it entailed an added burden on them. It was a question of filtering those civilians in search of Tiger cadres trying to infiltrate into cleared areas mingling with the civilians. The fact is that they have to deal with the most ruthless terror outfit in the world which does not care even about the lives of members of their own community when achieving their illusive objectives.

On the other hand the Security Forces had to deal with a civilian population who had lived under the grip of the LTTE for decades experiencing all sorts of harassments and agonies in their day today lives. So the Security Forces have to deal with two issues, humanity and terrorism, together. Whilst giving top priority for the question of terrorism the Security Forces also had to give top most priority to treat these civilians with humanely. They could not treat those innocent civilians like beasts, like the way the LTTE treated them.

Therefore, they were careful enough to handle the civilians with a more humanitarian approach. Many soldiers offered their meal for the civilians who were crossing in to cleared areas after lodging with the Tiger cadres and without proper meals for days. The soldiers manning the forward defences came out with their hearts when they saw infants and children among the thousands of civilians. But the LTTE had no iota of concern about the plight of these civilians and they indiscriminately fired at them killing number of civilians and injuring dozens of them in their bid to stop those civilians fleeing from the Tiger controlled areas.

Cleared

It was amidst this situation the LTTE sent a human bomb among the thousands of civilians fleeing from uncleared areas last Monday at a transit welfare centre in Visuamadu.. More than 10 innocent civilians were killed and 64 other injured in the suicide blast that may be the first occasion a LTTE suicide cadre blew herself up where such a large number of Tamil civilians were present. Nineteen Security Forces personnel including two officers were also killed in this blast.

In a way the LTTE wanted to take revenge from the civilians who were escaping from their areas. It was also a desperate bid to stop them in Puthukuduyiruppu, the last destination of their two and half years long journey. At the same time the LTTE also wanted to change the way the Security Forces were treating those civilians, as majority of civilians have kept faith in the Security Forces and changed their attitude towards the Security Forces as they personally experienced the humane way the Security Forces were treating them which was quite unexpected for the civilians who had experienced the brutality of the LTTE.

Suffer

The LTTE wanted the civilians to suffer at the hands of the Security Forces. By way of inducting their cadres and suicide bombers the LTTE can make these civilians suffer as Security Forces have to question each and every Tamil civilian in their bid to identify those suicide cadres and Tiger cadres mingling with those civilians. However, the entire world realized the true nature of the LTTE through this bomb blast as they targeted their own community. Therefore, those Human Rights organization who were critical about the stringent security measures focusing the Tamil civilians arriving in Colombo and suburbs from the North and Vanni, can understand the way the LTTE is making use of these innocent civilians as a cover for their terror activities.

Suspicion also arises whether this female suicide cadre arrived there looking for a high profile military target who frequently visits that transit welfare centre at Piramantharu Maha Vidyalayam. However, with this human tragedy the Security Forces had to change its method of searching these civilians who were arriving in Government controlled areas in large numbers. The Security Forces had to take this measure considering the safety of the civilians and also the safety of the Security Forces engaged in these humanitarian missions.

The troops also detected some of the Black Tiger cadres arriving in the Government controlled area mingling with thousands of civilians. One such Black Tiger cadre was captured by the 58 Division troops on the eve of the bomb blast in Visuamadu. The Security Forces detected this suspicious person as they recovered a satellite phone in his possession.

Later he divulged that he has been asked to move into Vavuniya along with this satellite phone so that the LTTE could provide him a suicide kit to accomplice his task. Like this Black Tiger cadre the LTTE would have sent hundreds of their cadres mingling with the civilians. So it would be massive task for the Security Forces and law enforcement authorities to prevent Tiger cadres infiltrating into cleared areas mingling with the civilians.

The Security Forces have identified this challenging situation where the LTTE is trying to sabotage the normal lives of the civilians by inducting their cadres among the civilians as they are trying to revert back to insurgency level of terror tactics after losing the last inch of land under their control.

It was with this situation in mind the Security Forces have increased its recruitment and training programs despite the fact that end of the battle is in sight. More and more Commando and Special Forces troops are expected to pass out very soon to tackle the challenging situation that may arise even after the capture the last inch of land under the LTTE. The vision of the Government is the total eradication of terrorism from the country so that the Government can focus its attention towards enshrining the Tamil community with their due rights and on the development process of the country.

Arrivals

As these new developments are taking place in the battle front with a huge influx of civilians arriving in the Government controlled areas he troops attached to the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva whilst handling thousands of Tamil civilians escaping the Tiger grip also had advanced further into the Tiger territory within the past few days.

They have come across many of the Tiger facilities like printing press and vehicles used by the Tiger leaders. Apart from them the 58 Division has also killed large number of Tiger cadres in their front in the North and West of Puthukuduyiruppu.

They have also found a claymore mine factory and mortar manufacturing factory on Thursday. The recovery of these assets very clearly indicates that the LTTE was manufacturing all what they needed for the war and were not much affected from the detection of their arms smuggling vessels.

The 57 Division operating South of A-35 road had completed their task with the capture of Karuvilkulam West area on Tuesday. With the completion of this task 57 Division will remain as a reserve Division holding Visuamadu South and Kilinochchi.

Following the attempts made by the LTTE to breach the Security Forces defences South of Puthukuduyiruppu Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka has made arrangements to form Task Force VIII and deployed it in the Mullaitivu West front. Colonel G.V. Ravipriya who was appointed as the Mannar Area Commander was airlifted to Oddusudan after he was appointed as the Task Force VIII Commander.

The 633 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Subashana Welikala operated under Task Force III and 593 Brigade under the Command of Lt. Colonel Lalantha Gamage has been attached to Task Force VIII Brigade Commanders.

The formation of Task Force VIII came after the formation of two Task Forces, Task Force VI and Task Force VII were deployed in Pooneryn and Iyakachchi areas to hold the areas captured during the past few months With this new deployment Army has strengthened its defences in the Mullaitivu, Mullaitivu West and Puthukuduyiruppu South.

With the 57 Division halting their offensive operations the 58 Division has been given the task of moving into Puthukuduyiruppu in a North to South direction and West to East direction and will link with the Task Force II under the command of Brigadier Rohana Bandara. Task Force II, Task Force IV and 59 Division will operate South of A-35 road whilst 58 Division troops are advancing towards Puthukuduyiruppu for the final battle with the LTTE.

The 55 Division under the command of Brigadier Prasanna Silva is also heading towards Mullaitivu from Chalai area to cover the beach front.

Pushed

With these moves the LTTE had pushed the civilians further towards Mullaitivu beach front away from the safety zone. With that move the Army headquarters took measures to declare a new No Fire Zone in the North East of Puthukuduyiruppu for the civilians to take refuge in that area. Amidst these developments, two Black Tiger cadres who had made attempts to blast the Iranamadu tank bund has made startling revelations about the terror plans of the LTTE. In an earlier SITREP we explained the way Security Forces attached to 57 Division detected these two Black Tiger cadres and foiled their attempt to blast the Iranamadu tank bund averting major disaster.

The troops attached to the 571 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Harendra Ranasinghe could avert a massive disaster on January 28, 2009 as they could detect two Black Tiger cadres who were roaming around the massive Iranamadu tank just few days after the LTTE exploded the Kalmadukulam tank.

Revelations

Initially they claimed that they had arrived there to surrender to the Security Forces but later accepted that they had arrived there for a suicide mission to explode the Iranamadu tank bund. Kanakasuthasan Suthas alias Shanker and Thillainathan Thivakaran alias Thamil Alai have made surprising revelations to the Security Forces. These shocking revelations by these two Black Tiger cadres ‘Shanker’ and ‘Thamil Alai’ confirm the fact that the LTTE had more terror plans in their hand to reverse the Security Forces victories even at the last moment.

According to latest revelations by these two Black Tiger cadres the LTTE had planned to explode Iranamadu tank bund after the fall of Kilinochchi to reverse the victories of the Security Forces in Kilinochchi as they have been totally frustrated following their defeat in Kilinochchi.

According to these two Black Tiger cadres attached to the Gangai Amarn squadron of the Sea Tiger wing which trains Sea Tigers for underwater missions, they have been briefed about their mission by Charles Anthony the elder son of Prabhakaran who is handling the IT unit of the LTTE in Visuamadu on January 23. Sea Tiger Special leader Soosai and Dinesh Master from Gangai Amaran Squadron have also been there when Charles Anthony briefed them about his plans to blast the Iranamadu tank bund. They have been taken to Visuamadu in an intercooler pajero from Mullaitivu where they had their basic training prior to their mission.

They have been trained to swim more than 10 kilo metres at a stretch.

Before they were taken to Visuamadu and prior to their training ‘Shanker’ and ‘Thamil Alai’ had a dinner with Tiger leader Prabhakaran in December in an unknown destination along with another set of Black Tiger cadres assigned for various other missions. According to the revelations of these Black Tiger cadres they have been served with mutton and string hoppers for their dinner at an unknown location. They have been selected for this mission as they have participated at the mission to hijack Farah II ship in the Mullaitivu seas. Charles Anthony had explained his plan to the Black Tiger cadres through a computer presentation. They have studied each and every part of the Iranamadu tank before preparing this master plan. They have studied the sluice gates, depth and the capacity of the Iranamadu tank and the extent of area that may submerge following the explosion of the tank bund. They have also identified the high grounds that may not be submerged in the floods and pointed out those places as the places to which troops would gather to escape from floods.

They have been asked to explode the tank bund at a depth of 20 feet to cause maximum damage. The two Black Tiger cadres who arrived there through the jungle patches in Mullaitivu have been provided with claymore mines, diving kits, chargers and satellite phones to carry out their mission.

They have been asked to inform the Sea Tiger leader about the time they were going to explode the Iranamadu tank bund to carry out the second phase of it. Charles Anthony and Soosai had estimated that 5,000 soldiers would die in the floods that would result following the blast of Iranamadu tank bund and the flood waters would remain for more than five days after the explosion.

Deploy

It could submerge entire Kilinochchi district up to Pooneryn and some parts of the Jaffna peninsula. Sea Tiger special leader Soosai had explained how he is going to deploy more than 300 Sea Tigers in floods in search of the marooned soldiers. The Sea Tiger leader Soosai had planned to launch some 50 boats soon after the explosion of the Iranamadu tank to attack the marooned soldiers.

The LTTE made use of this tactic when LTTE exploded the Kalmadukulam Tank bund two weeks back but failed in their endeavour as troops reacted to that situation without any confusion. But one thing went wrong with the LTTE though the LTTE had carried out reconnaissance missions they have not come across Security Forces presence at the Iranamadu tank bund.

The two cadres who had arrived there at the Iranamadu tank have faced a difficult situation due to the presence of the Security Forces. The Tiger leaders never expected the troops to be on high alert as they have been instructed to increase the security in Iranamadu tank after Kalmadukulam incident.

Apart from this incident the Tiger cadres have also made startling revelations about the Sea Tiger wing. According to these two black Tiger cadres the Sea Tigers have experimented one of their small submarines in Nanthikadal lagoon few months back and increased their underwater capabilities. They have also divulged that ten more Black Tiger cadres have been trained with them for underwater missions.

Drains

But all their terror plans to reverse the military victories of the Security Forces, went in drains due to the vigilance of the Security Forces. This terror plan divulged by the captured Black Tiger cadres very clearly indicates the desperation of the LTTE at this stage. These revelations by the two Black Tiger cadres confirm few important facts. One is that Tiger Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his elder son are still living among the civilians in Puthukuduyiruppu and are engaged in making more and more terror plans to reverse the military victories.

What they want at this moment is only to reverse the Security Forces victories at any cost. They have no iota of respect for human lives at this moment. Therefore, it is inevitable that the LTTE would come out with terror plans of this nature in the coming days when they are going to face its certain defeat.

Therefore, the entire nation should wake up to this moment by keeping on vigilance about this situation to make the efforts taken by the Security Forces a more fruitful one without allowing the LTTE to foil that at the last moment.