Top LTTE leaders killed against troops onslaught:

LTTEs waterloo

Shanika SRIYANANDA in Puthukkudiyiruppu

Troops gaurding the Alampil beach front. Pix: Thilak Perera

6 GR team led by Lt. Col. Mohan Ratnayake which accounted for over a dozen top rung LTTErs.

Troops trudge along a bridge atop the Nanthi Kadal lagoon.

Major Roshan Silva inspects a 30mm anti - aircraft machine gun.

The tracer lights continuously lit up the skies of the one square kilometre fierce battle front, indicating that the terrorists trapped in encircled land were trying to flee. The open ground and the jungle territory was half illuminated by moon light, and the shadows of terrorists was slightly visible. While the firing was going on continuously, the terrorists, who did not know that they were trapped from both ends, were trying to breakthrough from a short cut to the A-35 road leading to the No Fire Zone (NFZ), barely 2.5 kms from the point of fighting.

Though the troops were tired after days long non-stop fierce fighting in the encircled area, where the LTTE leader was hiding for months but fled just two days before the fighting erupted, the soldiers did not leave breathing space for the run away LTTE cadres. They attacked them from dawn to dusk. Last Saturday, after a continuous three-hour long battle, troops of 6 Gemunu Regiment of the Air Mobile Team under the directions of Lt. Col. Mohan Ratnayake, captured the entire encircled area - Anandapuram.

It was the end game for nearly a dozen of top rung LTTE leaders including females. Mislead, some recruited as child solders to the outfit, breathed their last helplessly after they were abandoned by their so-called leader, the `sun God’, who promised a separate land for them for decades.

“We found 19 bodies and a large amount of weapons,” said Major Nandana Weerasekara explaining the ground situation where they found a body with tubes and a cannula.

Theepan’s body

The body was LTTE’s military leader Theepan which was discovered after it was despatched to the camp.

Theepan, the ruthless terrorist was responsible for killing many soldiers in the Northern terrain. Initially, the terrorists, consisting of 600 cadres had planned to attack via A-35 to recapture Puthukkudiyiruppu (PDK). But the pre-monitoring foiled this as the troops of the Task Force 8, 58 and 53 Divisions had surrounded the terrorists from all directions, completely sealing off their supply routes in Puthumathalan.

The troops successfully repulsed all the attacks and killed over 500 terrorists and encircled the rest into Anandapuram, an area of one square km in between Puthukkudiyiruppu and Ampalavanpokkanai road which was connected to the FDLs in the NFZ. Maj. Weerasekara said that Theepan’s body which was found near a shrub indicated that he was injured a few days ago and the terrorists had been trying to take him out of the fighting.

“He was given blood and the two tubes were fixed to drain the blood caused due to internal bleeding. He was wearing an army shirt and a black trouser”, he said adding that the name Theepan was carved in the trouser belt and no tag hung around his neck.

According to soldiers whom we interviewed soon after the victory of total liberation of the PDK, the terrorists prepared for a massive attack to capture PDK using almost all the sophisticated weapons, but could not achieve their target due to the correct leadership of the Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and the correct commands by the GOCs - Task Force 8 Col. G.V. Ravipriya and Brig. Shavendra Silva of the 58 Division and the Acting GOC of the 53 and Director Infantry Brig. Chagie Gallege representing the 53 Division GOC Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne, who was on leave, and later joined the operation.

In a sudden move the troops of 58 Division led by Brig. Shavendra Silva and 582 Brigade led by Col. Sanjaya Wanigasinghe and 581 Brigade led by Lt. Col.Deshapriya Gunawardane moved from North to South while troops of 53 Division led by Brig. Gallage made a South to North move from the A-35 and linked up with the 58 Division troops. Special forces, commandos and Task Force 8, with 681 Brigade under Lt. Col. Lalantha Gamage and 682 Brigade under Lt. Col. Subash Welikala were led by Col. G.V. Ravipriya joining the two divisions to capture the last junction of the PDK sealing off the last supply route of the terrorists from the NFZ. The advancing troops of the three fighting elements caused the LTTE leader and his deputy Pottu Amman to run for life leaving 150 cadres and the valuables of Prabhakaran.

Captured

The teams of 5VIR led by Lt. Col. Kalpa Sanjeewa were able to capture a large haul of weapons including a 30mm anti-aircraft machine gun, three 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, seven multipurpose machine guns (MPMG), three light machine guns (LMG), 43 T-56 rifles, six T-81 rifles, two x 40mm grenade launchers, four 5.56mm weapons and three RPG launchers. Maj. Roshan Silva, who was in the Army for over 12 years, said that they commenced the military thrust on March 28 and advanced to the PDK East and then again to the North until they captured the Pachchapulmodei junction. “Over 500 terrorists attacked us over seven times using heavy weapons and on April 4 we continued fighting till 4 a.m. and killed over 400 terrorists. Later we recovered the bodies and weapons and advanced again further and recovered the anti-aircraft gun which was used by the terrorists”, he said.

According to Maj. Silva , the eight-man teams was able to repulse the terrorist, attempts to capture the junction to open a path towards the Valayamadam area to flee with their casualties.He said that the morale of the soldiers was high though they had encountered several strong attacks. Lance Corporal Ajith Bandara was one such brave soldier who did not abandoned the fight while he was bleeding from the neck and the leg due to mortar attack. “I told him to withdraw but he said, “No Sir. I can fight and I want to finish off these terrorists”, Maj. Silva said.

Terrorists running

Corp. Bandara had fought with the terrorists for over six hours with his wounds. “I saw the terrorists running and some were committing suicide”, Corp. Bandara who was examined by the doctor at the MDS of the 53 Division that morning, said. He had joined the group to exhibit the stock of weapons to the 53 Division, GOC Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne said.

According to Maj. Silva, the terrorists in the encircled area were just left by their leaders and even not aware that their leaders were killed. “ “They did not have communication and were lost in the battle front.

Their morale was down without command. They were just running and not fighting with us. We found the bodies of child soldiers aged 13 and 14”, he said.

This was the battle in the Eelam war history that the LTTE leader sacrificed nearly dozens of his top leaders to achieve his day dream - Eelam.It was confirmed that Theepan, LTTE’s military wing leader, Keerthi - intelligence leader of Batticaloa, Widhusha - head of the Malathi Regiment, Seelambu - head of the Radha Regiment, Amudha - a senior leader of Kutti Sri Mortar Regiment, Durgha - head of Sodiya Women Brigade, Maniwannan (In charge of Artillery), Anuthab (Head of Charles Anthony Brigade), Gopith (former head of Charles Anthony Brigade), Iniyawan - senior team leader of the Radha Regiment, Mankuil - LTTE intelligence leader and Anton - intelligence leader of Trincomalee had died in this battle.

The saddest part of this end game in PDK was that these leaders died helplessly while they pleading for help from their leadership. The intercepted radio transmissions revealed how Vidusha was pleading of Pottu Amman, who ran with Prabhakaran which was to no avail.