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Mortally
wounded Tigers attempt counterattack
LTTE
restricted to 35sq. km. with ‘No Fire Zone’ of 18
sq. km.
On
March 5, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Air Force (SLAF) Operation
rooms were abuzz with information that the LTTE was infiltrating
the flanks of the military between South of Chalai and Palamathalan,
North of Puthukkudyirippu.
Two UAVs and a Beach Craft were airborne within minutes and
began sending in air intelligence of LTTE movements and their
locations. Simultaneously, the data was fed to the Director
Operations at Army Headquarters too, while the Directorate
of Military Intelligence was collecting ground information.
Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, was continuously in touch
with 55 Division General Officer Command (GOC), Brig. Prasanna
Silva, and 58 Division (GOC) Brig. Shavendra Silva.
On March 6, over 200 cadres, including suicide bombers and
Sea Tigers launched the initial thrust. Following this effort,
the terrorists had planned to send waves of 100 plus cadres
to provide reinforcements. Bhanu, Lawrence, Soosai and a few
other high profile LTTE leaders were directly involved in
masterminding the pre-emptive assault, according to officers
from the battlefront. According to the military, this is the
first time during the recent battles that the LTTE had committed
so many of its ‘high profile’ leaders to the battlefront.
Yet, timely detection and precise intelligence information
as mentioned above, proved decisive, as the terrorist offensives
were met with equally or more intense military counterattacks
at the crack of dawn. Over 30 terrorists were killed during
the initial thrust, while the rest were hunted down within
a matter of two-days by the troops of the 2nd Commando Regiment,
the 12 Gemunu Regiment, 12 Gajaba Regiment and 8 Gemunu Watch
(GW).
The following day, 58 and 55 Divisions killed over 50 terrorists
during fighting that ensued between troops and the LTTE in
the general areas north of Puthukkudiyirippu and south of
Palamathalan. Troops of 58 Division alone found 24 bodies
of LTTE cadres and seized a huge haul of weapons, security
sources said. Thirteen of the slain terrorists were identified
to be from the elite ‘Imran-Pandiyan brigade’ of
the LTTE, who were killed following a heavy exchange of gunfire
with 8 GW. During this battle, snipers of the SLA had observed
three LTTE cadres armed with Multi Purpose Machine Guns (MPMGs)
firing at troops, and gunned them down.
Close encounter of an explosive kind
582 Brigade under Lt. Col. Sanjaya Wanigasinghe and one
of his battalions, 9 GW, advanced east of Puthukkudiyirippu
town. One of the soldiers had noticed an explosives device
placed on a tree and immediately alerted the rest of his team,
while informing his commanding officer. The group then divided
into two and spread while advancing. The hidden LTTE cadres,
thinking that the troops were advancing unawares, had exploded
the bomb. A thunderous explosion followed and buildings in
the surrounding area were shattered, reflecting the massive
power of the explosion. Thus, one soldier’s vigilance
had saved the lives of at least 30 troopers.
Special forces flying high
On March 8, the Army Chief decided to dispatch his Special
Forces to the battlefront. That evening, a MI-17 helicopter
landed south of Puthukkudiyirippu with the Special Forces
at a tactical point. By this time, the LTTE cadres who mounted
the counterattack, had already recaptured a section of the
massive earth bund earlier taken by the Army. It was dark
and raining, but the Special Forces mounted a tactical assault
on the LTTE cadres dominating the bund at the tip of the Chalai
lagoon, killing 84 Tigers, effectively blocking and encircling
the Tigers within the Army controlled area. Meanwhile, air
surveillance had provided exact positions of the LTTE cadres.
Troops set up a cordon whence the LTTE couldn’t escape
and thereafter hunted down the Tiger infiltrators.
LTTE cadres launched another attacked on 55 Division that
same night. This too was successfully repulsed by troops and
the following morning, March 9, over 45 bodies of LTTE cadres
were observed floating in the lagoon.
LTTE suffer major debacle
Troops collected 150 Tiger bodies and a large haul of
arms and ammunition belonging to the LTTE. There were two
important senior LTTE leaders killed in battle when this column
went to press, and no confirmation was available on their
identity. A high-profile funeral was held in the LTTE area,
and its leadership had instructed not to publish the names
of leaders killed
Items found included 286 T-56 assault rifles, 8 T-58 assault
rifles, 18 Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, 10 MPMG
guns, 6 60mm mortar launchers, two 12.7mm anti-aircraft guns,
two Light Machine Guns (LMGs), one 40mm grenade launcher,
one 9mm pistol, probably belonging to a leader, seven I-Com
communications sets, a compass and a M-91 sniper gun.
Another failed wave from Tigers
At around 5.30 a.m. on March 9, the LTTE launched another
counterattack on Task Force VIII, West of Puthukkudiyirippu
town. An officer from the battlefront said that, in this attack,
the LTTE had engaged the troops only with small arms. Troops
had retaliated. Officers had observed an interesting incident
during this confrontation, battlefield sources said. Civilians
dressed in sarongs came to confront troops. But when soldiers
confronted them, they had fled. This throws some light on
civilians being forcibly recruited by the LTTE from the ‘Safe
Zone’, given basic weapons training and pushed to the
front, along with the LTTE cadres. This may serve the Tiger
agenda in two ways. One, it will enhance its already depleted
cadre, albeit with lesser or no experience persons. The second
and deadlier reason is, when these civilians are killed during
confrontations, the LTTE can tell the world through the ICRC
-- some of whose members are present in the ‘Safe Zone’
- that the SLA was killing civilians. At the same time, the
LTTE shoots at any civilians fleeing towards government controlled
areas and puts the blame on the military.
Tiger
network
Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, author of the international bestseller,
“Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror”, wrote
of the ties between the LTTE and Muslim terrorist groups that
developed in the 1990s. This included terrorist groups in
Pakistan and the LTTE working together. Prof. Gunaratna said:
“The LTTE is a very revengeful and a cunning group. To
punish India, the LTTE built ties with Indian terrorist groups
in India’s North, Northeast and in the South, in the
late 1980s and early 1990s. Similarly, to punish the US, the
LTTE built ties with terrorist groups in Afghanistan in the
late 1990s. To punish Pakistan, a key ally of Sri Lanka, the
LTTE provided suicide and other terrorist technologies to
terrorist groups attacking Pakistan. The suicide vest perfected
by the LTTE, has been used to kill several hundreds of security
forces personnel and innocent people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The LTTE poses a serious threat to domestic, regional and
international security
Terrorism
hits international cricket
Eight Pakistani policemen laid down their lives while protecting
the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore from an LTTE ally Pakistan
Taliban Terrorist Organisation (PTTO) in a similar way that
four Sri Lankan soldiers escorting Pakistan High Commissioner
in Sri Lanka Col. (Rtd) Bashir Wali Mohmand sacrificed their
lives, when an LTTE bomb explosion killed them in Colombo
on August 14, 2006. Bashir Wali Mohmand was once an Intelligence
head of Pakistan. Sources said that the PTTO had specifically
requested the LTTE to eliminate Bashir Wali Mohmand because,
as a former intelligence head, he was a tremendous setback
to the PTTO and the Al Qaeda operating in Pakistan.
Harakat-ul Mujahideen (HUM), a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation
used the LTTE’s shipping network extensively. Terrorist
organisations worldwide cannot survive, if not inter-connected
in some way or the other. There is strong evidence that the
Pakistani or Afghan based terror outfits have direct or indirect
connections with the LTTE.
The HUM based in Pakistan has used the LTTE shipping network
extensively. An article in Jane’s Intelligence of November
2002, on ‘Terrorist Financing in South Asia’, states
that the LTTE shipping fleet provided logistics support to
HUM, a Pakistani militant group with Al Qaeda affiliations
to transport consignments of weapons to Islamist groups in
the Philippines.
With the split within the HUM, one group formed an organisation
calling itself the Pakistan Taliban Terrorist Organization
(PTTO or Pakistan Taleban). These two terrorist organisations
have links with Al Qaeda. Although the PTTO was a separate
terrorist organisation, they maintained links with the LTTE
for the transport of arms and explosives and currently some
LTTE cadres are reportedly providing explosives training to
PTTO members, said one of the defence experts in Sri Lanka.
He also said that the Pakistan Intelligence Service and its
military are hard on their tracks.
One of the PTTO agents Omar Shame (probably not his real name),
who speaks fluent English, has said that the Taliban leader
has designated him to deal with the LTTE and other terrorist
organisations.
Omar Shamed deals with the LTTE’s chief procurement person
Selvarajah Pathmanadan alias Kumar Pathmanadan - or better
known simply as ‘KP’. KP too has visited Pakistan
and met PTTO leaders.
During the ceasefire period in Sri Lanka, some LTTE leaders
and medium level cadres had shared their suicide bomber techniques
with the PTTO.
The leader of the PTTO is Baitullah Mehsud and the outfit
is said to operate from the Fate region close to the Afghan
border. When the USA’s CIA and Pakistan’s SIS Intelligence
attempted to trace him, the PTTO had spread rumors to the
effect that their leader had been killed. The international
media had picked up the news, but Pakistan Taliban hadn’t
produced evidence or video materials of the funeral of their
dead leader, to the media. However, a foreign intelligence
source says Baitullah Mehsud is still alive and he had actually
misled the media regarding his death. At the moment, he is
in command of the PTTO.
The Pakistan Government has been providing military hardware
and other assistance to Sri Lanka for a long time. The LTTE
wants to disrupt the goodwill between the two countries and
hatched the following plot with the PTTO.
KP had requested the PTTO to attack the Sri Lanka Cricket
team. If the Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) had exploded inside
the bus carrying the Sri Lanka cricket team to the Gaddafi
Stadium in Lahore, all or most of the team would have been
definitely killed. This would have served the main intention
and purpose of the LTTE -- to disrupt the goodwill between
Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Incidentally, this is not the only incident involving Sri
Lanka and Pakistan. There was an attempt made by the LTTE
to try and eliminate the former Pakistan High Commissioner
in Sri Lanka, Bashir Wali Mohmand, who narrowly escaped a
claymore attack on his vehicle on August 14, 2006. The LTTE
exploded a claymore mine placed in a three-wheeler, along
Green Path, Colombo 7.
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