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[Daily Mirror - Troops take over the main sea supply route of the Tigers The weekly Security Council meeting on Wednesday was attended by the defence top brass including Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and was presided over by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Soon after the meeting commenced, Army Commander Sarath Fonseka informed the President that his troops had captured most of the areas surrounding the LTTE s largest sea supply base in the north western coast- Viduthalaitivu (translated as Freedom Island) and by Wednesday evening, troops would be able to gain full control of the base after more than 20 years. Later the Army Chief briefed about the future military operations aimed at gaining control of the remaining LTTE strongholds. The establishment of new camps in the liberated areas was also discussed. The Navy is expected to take over the Viduthalaitivu area. The news of capturing the Viduthalathivu base reached the media by Wednesday morning. But the announcement of the take over came to the media in a different way with the Defence Ministry s official website posting a statement that around 9 am on Wednesday the area had been captured by the military. But Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told the media that the troops were yet to capture the area, and were conducting clearing operations. However later in the day he declared that the area had been captured and troops were moving further north of Viduthalativu. The undeclared Eelam War IV that was initially launched by the Tigers on August 1, 2006, by attacking Mutur in Trincomalee reached another turning point with the capturing of the LTTE s topmost sea supply base in the north Western coast. The Sea Tiger complex that spans over 10 km was also used to launch several deadly suicide attacks on the Navy in the recent past.Soldiers from the 58 Division and Commandos had initially entered to the highly fortified base. The march to Viduthalaithivu Soon after taking control of the Rice Bowl area by the 58 Division, its General Officer Command Brigadier Shavindra De Silva mapped out how he would proceed to capture the strategically important LTTE stronghold Viduthalhaitivu. At that time the Brigadier was in possession of intelligence reports giving details of the LTTE plans to face the military. He also found that the Tigers were planning to withdraw from the area due to the onslaught of the army. On Tuesday (July 15), soldiers of Task Force 1 (58 division) reached the area South of Viduthalaitivu few hundreds metres away from the LTTE defences, located 2 Km South of the town. Earlier troops waited until the new front opened up by the 58-2 brigade of the Task Force-1 and the commandos approached from the East of the Viduthalaitivu town. This new front opened up 10 km East of Viduthalativu managed to reach the Mannar Poonaryn A32 road North of Viduthalaitivu within one week. On Tuesday evening troops approaching from the South led the main assault and captured a 2.5km stretch of the LTTE forward defence line. Since capturing the Rice Bowl, troops were able to smoothly move towards Viduthalaitivu as the LTTE was fleeing towards Kilinochchi in the face of the Army s fire power and tactics. Because of the swift movement by the troops the LTTE had no time to block the path of the Army s path by putting bombs and other deadly traps. Ground commanders said that marching towards Vidulhalaitivu was easy compared to earlier operations. However, in South of Viduthalathivu, troops had to march over a dense mine field removing hundreds of anti personnel mines, improvised explosive devices and booby traps. When taking over the Rice Bowl area, troops had to remove a large number of booby traps and also destroy highly protected bunker lines. The troops marching from the South had to cross strong LTTE defences built on a seven foot tall earth mound with a deep ditch dug in front of it, before they approached Viduthalaitivu town. Another strong line some 200 metres behind the main defence line consisted of fortified bunkers on either side of the river Nai Aru that connects with the sea. The river is the main unloading point of the LTTE, as boats with arms and ammunition can easily enter the river through the natural harbour in Viduthalativu. This defence line cut across the Mannar- Poonaryn road, 2 km south of Viduthalaitivu and runs up to 10 km from the coast to Paramarayankulama, situated 8 km south east of Viduthalaitivu. In this defence line bunkers made of thick wooden logs were positioned at every 150metres. As the 58 division launched the attack on the defences starting from the coast and approached the land south of Viduthalativu, the LTTE was unable to hold their positions and started to flee further northwards and later suffered heavy casualties when the Commandos flanking the northeastern boundaries of Viduthalaitivu laid an ambush on them. Reports said that the commandos confronted a group of approximately 60 LTTE cadres around 2 pm on Tuesday. As the terrorist started to withdraw towards Iluppakkadavai, north of Viduthalaitivu, the commandos requested for indirect fire and as a result heavy artillery and multi barrel rocket fire was targeted on the withdrawing Tigers. An hour later, Air Force Mi-24 gunship assistance was sought to attack some fleeing LTTE cadres leading to closer air support missions to the ground troops. Later the ground troops claimed over 30 Tigers were killed due to the artillery and air assault.Meanwhile, troops approaching from the East of Viduthalaitivu cut off the Mannar - Pooneryn road (A-32) at a location 2 km north of the town on Wednesday morning, surrounding the Tigers stronghold from the south, east and north. Later troops marched into the town and declared the area liberated after 21 years. At the same time, the only escape route from Viduthalathivu which is the sea path the military monitored two boats fleeing with some cadres. Immediately Air Force Mi-24 attack helicopters were called to the scene. A massive air raid was launched destroying the two fleeing boats, the air force later reported. However, at the time of troops arrived in Viduthalathivu, the LTTE had fled the area and there was not much resistance from the Tigers. During the operation that lasted nearly two weeks monitored LTTE radio transmissions had revealed that over 100 LTTE cadres were killed and a large number wounded. In one occasion commandos found 28 bodies of LTTE cadres during this period. The troops are now advancing further north along the Pooneryn-Mannar road and is close to Iluppakkadavai. Losing the best geographical location in the north-west coast for Sea Tiger operations will be huge loss to the Tigers, following its loss of over ten arms ships due to the sea blockade by the Sri Lanka Navy in the north eastern seas. With the fall of Viduthalativu, the Sea Tigers had moved their sea operations to Wallaipadu, some 14 kilometres north of Viduthalathivu, where the Air Force Jets bombed and caused heavy damage to the location on Wednesday evening. For military, the capturing of Viduthalathivu after 21 years was major military achievement of the Sri Lanka Armed forces during undeclared Eelam war IV. Revisiting earlier operations to Viduthalaitivu With the capturing of Jaffna in 1997 the government wanted to open a road to the Peninsula through land. For that purpose on May 13, 1997 security forces launched an operation, code named Jayasikuru in order to capture A-9 Jaffna-Kandy main road.The operation, which was the longest military operation in Sri Lanka s history, was able to capture a large area including Mankulam and Kanagarayankulam, despite heavy resistance from the LTTE. In order to minimize the pressure on the military, the security forces planed to open a new front and mapped out to take control of the Mannar-Pooneryn - A-32 road. On March 1999, under the code name Ranagosa , the security forces launched and operation in several phases from west of Mannar area. The troops advanced despite highly fortified bunkers and defences in the area. At the Stage 4 of the Operation, the main task was to capture Viduthalaitivu area. That was June 23, 1999, and troops from 55 Division started to move to Viduthalaitivu and the 53 Division to Periyamadu. After days of fierce battles, the troops were able to enter the Viduthalathivu area on June 26, 1999 destroying the LTTE forward defence lines. But at that time some hundreds of soldiers sacrificed their lives and a large number were also injured. But the troops were unable to capture the Viduthalathivu town and the sea base. Soon after capturing the FDLs, the LTTE launched a massive onslaught against the military, resulting in almost all the area captured by the military from both the Riviresa and Ranagosa being recaptured by the Tigers within two days. After destroying the FDL line of the military at Oddusuddan, the LTTE step by step captured Mankulam, Nedunkerni, Olumadu, Kanagarayankulam and several other areas up to Mannar and Vavuniya. Because of the debacle, the government sent several top military officers home for failing to do their duties. Earlier, until August 1987 the troops were in control of the area but with the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) the tide turned favorable to the Tigers, as the IPKF pulled out in March 1990 and the LTTE took control of the area. ] |
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