Troops foil Tigers’ bid to cause human tragedy

The LTTE failed in their attempts to create human catastrophe as troops advanced towards Dharmapuram and VisuamaduWhen the troops of the 59 Division continued their battle to capture Tiger stronghold Mullaitivu in January 2009, the other offensive Divisions deployed in the Wanni liberation operation continued their advance farther shrinking the area under the control of the LTTE.

The 57 Division under the command of Major General Jagath Dias and 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva advanced farther eastward from the Jaffna Kandy A-9 highway after taking full control of Kilinochchi, Paranthan and Elephant Pass.

The 55 Division under the command of Brigadier Prasanna de Silva advanced farther southward from the Eastern beach front of the Jaffna peninsula destroying all Sea Tiger bases there in the Eastern coast of the Jaffna peninsula.

Although, the LTTE continued to, undermine the military victories, in Kilinochchi, Paranthan and Elephant Pass they were deeply perturbed by the moves of the Security Forces towards East. There were justifiable reasons for them to be disturbed by the moves of the Security Forces because the LTTE, even at this juncture had not lost non of their heavy weaponry to the Security Forces despite the fact almost all their reputed strongholds falling to the hands of the Security Forces.

Assets shifted

They have shifted all their armouries, heavy weaponry and all other assets towards Dharmapuram, Visuamadu and Puthukuduyiruppu, which were later identified as their major military bases by the Security Forces.

It was on January 17, 2009 the 57 Division declared that Ramanadanpuram was liberated from the LTTE. Troops of the 571 Brigade under the command of Lt. Colonel Harendra Ranasinghe and 572 brigade under the command of Colonel Senerath Bandara entered Ramanadapuram on January 16, 2009 night after several days of fightingRamanadapuram was the second largest defensive area after Kilinochchi and is located about 6-10 km east of the A-9 road (Jaffna- Kandy) from Iranamadu.

When the troops of the 57 Division were capturing Ramanadapuram the troops of the 58 division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva regained the control of Dharmapuram on January 15 in the afternoon.

Dharmapuram was one of the biggest townships in the Paranthan-Mullaitivu road and 15km east of the A-09 road.During the battle, troops, inflicted heavy damages to Tiger cadres. In a subsequent search operation, troops recovered six bodies of the LTTE.

It was after the capture of Dharmapuram, the troops realized the way the LTTE had pushed civilians forcibly into these areas along with their personal belongings. Troops found that the LTTE had shifted container loads and lorry loads of their belongings, food stocks and every other material towards this area.

Stiff resistance

LTTE posed stiff resistance to the advancing troops as they were not in a position to shift those assets further eastward as they could not create huge earth bunds like earlier as the troops advance was much speedier than they expected.

However they managed to push the civilians further towards Visuamadu and Puthukudiyiruppu. However, the civilians had to leave behind many of their assets in Dharmapuram as they had to move hurriedly from the area.

When 57 and 58 Division troops were capturing Ramanathanpuram, and Dharampuram the troops attached to the Task Force II advancing north from the A-34 road (Mankulam-Mullaittivu) in the thick Muthiyankattu jungle, recovered 19 bodies of slain LTTE cadres along with 6 T-56 riffles, 2 light machine guns (LMG), 1 RPG launcher, 8 claymore mines and 4 grenades from the north of Muthiyankadu Tank area on January 17.

That was after the troops operating there, repulsing major counter attack by the LTTE to push back the advancing troops as they were heading towards the areas where they were having their major military assets.

Troops fought fierce battles with the terrorists struggling to defend their last hideout. The infantrymen of 6 Vijayaba Infantry Regiment (6 VIR) led by Major Prabhath Kodithuwakku and 8 Gajaba Ragiment (8 GR) led by Major Chandana Wickramasinghe spearheaded the battle.It was on January, 14, 2009, the Army captured the well-known LTTE runway in Iranamadu, which is considered the largest air strip belonging to the Tamil Tigers. The army also succeeded in capturing the last LTTE area - Chundikulam in the Jaffna Peninsula.

Airstrip captured

The LTTE airstrip captured by troops was 300 metres in length and 15 metres in width and was located southeast of the Iranamadu Tank. It was also an extension of the existing road parallel to the Iranamadu Tank bund.

Infantrymen of 9 Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (SLSR) led by Lieutenant Colonel Janaka Ariyaratne were the first to enter the airstrip. The area was heavily guarded by the LTTE with a barbed wire fence built at a distance of 300m, around the air strip. The two armour plated hangars and several other huts were also found.

As these battles continued the Task Force III under the command of Brigadier Satyapriya Liyanage and Task Force IV under the command of Colonel Nishantha Wanniarachchi headed towards northwards from Mankulam-Mullaitivu road towards Visuamadu and Puthukuduiruppu. They operated from Olumadu and Oddusudan.This situation compelled the LTTE to rethink about their military strategy. Therefore, they had apparently decided to go for the worst ever plan they could think of either stopping or delaying the advance of the troops into their territory.

They have thought of inflicting maximum damages to the Security Forces, to stop the military action against them for ever.

It was when the troops attached to the 57 and 58 Divisions marched towards the Visuamadu the LTTE thought about implementing its first plan to stop the troops. The 58 Division was in operation on the North of Paranthan-Mullaitivu road whilst the 57 Division was advancing towards the East in the South of Paranthan-Mullaitivu road.

The date was January 24, a day prior to the capture of Mullaitivu Tiger stronghold.By this day thousands of soldiers attached to the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva was operating there in the Visuamadu North and 574 and 572 Brigade troops in the South of Visuamadu.

The first move of the LTTE came on January 24 early morning with the blast of the bridge linking Dharmapuram and Visuamadu on the A-35 road.Their intention was to divide the troops through the blast of this bridge.Their second move was much dangerous than the first one. It was around 9.30 am on January 24, they blasted the Kalamadukulam or the Komalamadukulam Tank bund South of Visuamadu.

There entire Visuamadu and Tharmapuram area was inundated in gusty water that came through the destroyed tank bund of the Kalamadukulam.Kalamadukulam Tank spreads over 4.5sq.km. with a capacity of supplementing irrigation water to over 500 acres of land.

Soldiers climb trees

As this huge quantity of water flowed through Nethal Aru that flows to the sea from the Vishuamadu North area, soldiers climbed on tree tops and other high grounds in Vishuamadu and Tharmapuram areas to save their lives. Some of them had miraculous escapes but many were prepared to the occasion as they have received the message about it minutes before the waters reached them.

Fortunately, almost all the troops who were operating ahead of the blast bridge had contacts with their respective battalions, and with their officers.The troops continued to monitor the Tiger communication and instructed the troops marooned in the floods not to communicate with their bases and also not to react to any of the LTTE fires.Then the second move of the LTTE came in the form of the huge artillery and mortar fire towards the areas troops were operating. The objective of the LTTE was to kill or capture a large number of soldiers alive who were marooned due to the water that gushed into their territory suddenly.They fired at tree tops using 12.7 mm guns and came in boats to attack these marooned in the floods. But all these moves by the LTTE were effectively foiled by the 58 Division and 57 Division troops as they had taken given due instruction for the troops how to react to this situation.

Although LTTE failed in their effort the Tamil Diaspora abroad spread the news that LTTE had captured 700 soldiers alive after destroying Klamadukulam Tank as they were not aware of the fact that LTTE could not carry out the second phase of its terror plan properly.

The waters that came into Security Forces controlled areas receded after three and half hours. It saw the failure of another attempt of the LTTE to create another human catastrophe.

Catastrophe foiled

But that was not the only plan the Security Forces have foiled in mid January after the capture of Kilinochchi. It was after the capture of Iranamadu Tank the Security Forces could foil another major attempt by the LTTE to create another catastrophe.

It was the 571 Brigade troops under the command of Lt. Colonel Harendra Ranasinghe who were in charge of the security in the Iranamadu Tank area after it was captured on January 15. Following the blast of the Komalamadukulam Tank the troops were on high alert that the LTTE would make any attempt to blast Iranamadu Tank also.

The troops operating in Iranamadu Tank were able to avert major disaster after arresting two Tiger cadres who had been sent to Iranamadu area to accomplish the task of exploding the Iranamadu Tank bund.

Vigilant troops operating there in Iranamadu had captured two Tiger cadres who had arrived close to Iranamadu Tank bund along with four claymore mines weighing more than 100 Kg.

They have moved into the area from Puthukuduiruppu area across the jungle terrain where Task Force III was operating in the South of A-35 road.It was after, they were questioned by the Security Forces at length they have divulged how they have been trained for the mission of blasting the Iranamadu tank.

According to the military, the arrested Tiger cadres have been trained to swim 10 Km non stop prior to sending them on this mission.

They have been given such training as the Iranamadu Tank extends for more than 17 square kilometres and if they wanted to blast the tank bund they had to swim taking their explosions along with them more than 10 km straight to avoid the troops operating there.

However, the Tiger cadres were not aware of the fact that Iranamadu Tank was under Security Forces control by the time they arrived for their mission.

The troops who were on vigilance after the explosion of the Kalmadukulam Tank had observed two Tiger cadres close to the tank bund as they were throwing hand grenades into the tank to avoid any Tiger infiltrations.

The two Tiger cadres have also left another 100 Kg of claymore bombs which were taken with them to accomplice this target halfway as they had to pass a long way to reach the tank bund avoiding troops.

If they were not detected by the troops they would have created the biggest tragedy in Sri Lanka at least killing 5,000 people as the quantity of water in the Iranamadu Tank is capable of inundating an area upto Jaffna.

The same Tiger cadres later divulged that it was the elder son of Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, Charles Anthony along with the Sea Tiger leader who planned this attack by providing them with clear details about it through computer presentation.

These two Sea Tiger cadres have been selected for this mission due to their ability to swim a long distance non stop.But, the prevention of that sinister attempt by the senior Tiger leader to create that human tragedy also neutralised yet another terror plan to take the upper hand in the battlefront at the end of the month of January in the year 2009 where the LTTE was facing major turning point in the battlefront.However, few days after this failed attempt, on January 28,, troops attached to the 58 Division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva and 57 Division under the command of Major General Jagath Dias has reached the Visuamadu junction.

One of the important features of capturing these territories under the LTTE was that Security Forces are depriving all the assets the LTTE had shifted from Mannar area towards Visuamadu, and Puthukuduiruppu areas.

The Security Forces were able to recover huge stocks of fuel, vehicles and other explosives from Visuamadu area. But the civilian population remained under LTTE detention making the next battles of the Security Forces a decisive one.