Sunday, November 21, 2010

Mortally wounded Tigers attempt counterattack

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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 kind582 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 TigersAt 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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