Saturday, June 23, 2007

2 Commando Regiment approaches Beiruit camp : Thoppigala

Sri Lanka army's commando units engaged in the Thoppigala offensive braved their way through rocky terrain, land mines, death traps and rough weather to reach the boundaries of LTTE's Beiruit camp. Beiruit complex is the last LTTE stronghold in the eastern province. 2nd Commando Regiment commanded by Major Uditha Bandara, is now laying the siege to Beiruit complex. 6th, 7th and 8th Gemunu regiments have also entered the battlefield to provide fire support in what is expected to be a fierce final battle.

Offensive to capture Thoppigala started when Army's Special Forces units penetrated LTTE defense lines on February 24th. Although the offensive met almost no LTTE resistance in early days, it has now come under heavy LTTE counterattacks. LTTE offered fierce resistance when troops attempted to capture the final LTTE defense line (near Narakamulla east) on the 19th. The FDL was fortified with 6 bunkers and 3 minor camps. Even after a heavy barrage of artillery and tank fire at the FDL, LTTE had not vacated their positions. The LTTE was taken by surprise by army's next move. Nearly 50 soldiers of the Commando regiment stormed into LTTE bunkers and opened fire on defending terrorists. In a few seconds, the entire situation of the  battle changed. LTTE cadres who initially had the upper hand of the battle were now trapped inside their own bunker line. This devastating commando raid left 30 tigers dead. 3 tiger cadres had committed suicide during the battle. In contrast to heavy LTTE casualties, only 4 commando units received injuries.

Initially, a tank offensive was planned to capture remaining tiger territory. This was called off later to avoid damages as LTTE used their MBRLs to fire at incoming troops. LTTE have used 2 6-barreled MBRLs, 4 120mm Mortars and numerous 81mm mortars as heavy weapons during the offensive.

46 comments:

  1. This is great news...
    no casualties and only few wounded...
    Super stuff by our brave forces...
    Hopefully this will be over soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. May the force be with the SLA.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thunrurwan Saranai, my dear brave heroes.
    I'm sure you will capture the Beiruit camp in no time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well done Our Heros !!!.

    you are doing a great job . only because of you guys we are living here , otherwise we are already dead .

    ReplyDelete
  5. way to go surprice the enemy and show no mercy..
    BTW, I read an interesting comment on the last week's Rivira news paper (The news paper The Nation's sinhala paper) security column about an incident happened in 1995 where a group of around 40 army personnel have been killed in an ambush near the toppigala area. The writer claims that one soldier was killed by hitting his head with an axe and another soldier was killed by hitting him directly by an rpg. IS there any information about this unfortunate incident?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. First, may our forces get strength day by day…..
    Whatever politician have done in south will harm the country. I can’t really believe what UNP doing this stage. All this because of Ranil’s short term policies & white man figure. As we can remember his government gave all the money and facilities to LTTE during the CFA and also Chandrika too. Then LTTE built their own de facto state. Because of previous governments immature decisions how many soldiers died? how many innocent people die every day? Now he is blaming on other people. Why they can’t just be together and solve this problem for ever when the enemy is weak. In UK when the terrorist blasted the bomb in the under ground UK opposition didn’t criticize Tony Blair, they supported him to crack down as it’s national threat even though they new that happen because of Iraq war. What’s happening in SL. If I want to get the power I will do anything this is what they think. They never think they will face the same problem oneday. Opposition always wants to get advantage whatever happens. This is really disgusting.
    I believe that at the moment SL forces doing well however criticizes, I believe after long time they have got the right direction and guidance and power. This time we should destroy this terrorist forever. Whatever remains should be sent to haven later. Enough is enough you cant just allow whole 20 million lives to be controlled by few thousand terrorists. We have a history we have culture this is enough that’s what all should understand. Any war you can see up & downs but now at least we have got the power to beat the terrorists & they showed to the world. This is what our forces need, they need to see they are wining against the enemy. They are doing their duty by destroying the enemy. Why our politicians cant just shut their mouth & leave the forces to do their job. When the forces are doing well in east opposition wants to stop the movement of the forces. Why ? All this international politics. Whatever happens we should destroy the enemy now when the moral is high & enemy is weak.
    LTTE is well organised organisation with huge intl network no one knows who is in their trap (may be Mangla & Sripathi too). It’s so big and also it has big influential factor to UK, EU politics too, most of LTTE supporters join with UK local political members and they inject all lies about SL Sinhala discrimination against Tamils. The fact is up until recently there was huge gap in the international arena to fill this gap from SL to feed the west. However as far as I understood now it’s getting much better in UK. Only other hand there are so may problems in UK b’cos of tamil LTTE activities around London suberb (Tamil gangs) even UK police have not yet done good job aginst them as almost every week there is one murder (related to Tamil) in London street. So finally UK arrested the main man of LTTE but I don't know it's for real or just a trick.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I read Defence Secretory's interview with 'The Nation' at SL Deffence website.

    Happy to note that despite what oposition politician said,he is determind, and he and security forces have the freedom, to do what is needed to be done

    ReplyDelete
  9. "around 40 army personnel have been killed in an ambush near the toppigala area. The writer claims that one soldier was killed by hitting his head with an axe and another soldier was killed by hitting him directly by an rpg. IS there any information about this unfortunate incident?"

    This is entirely true (and unfortunate) story. At that time commanders took a few steps to avoid such incidents but in this instance LTTE succeeded. Soldiers were killed in such brutal fashion to gain 'morale advantage'.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Defencenet,

    Just wondering, when was this? Today? Yeasterday?
    I am confused.

    ReplyDelete
  11. tangara,

    If you are referring to the previous comment, it happened way back in 1995 when there was an offensive to capture Thoppigala was ongoing (which ultimately succeeded. However LTTE crawled into Thoppigala when troops deployed there were redeployed in the north.).

    If you are referring to the commando raid, it happened on the 19th.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well done SLA heroes! Finish off the rest with “extreme prejudice.”

    MBRL:

    As DefNet said, it is true how those soldiers were killed in that 1995 incident. This is par-for-the-course for the LTTE monsters.

    In the recent Muhamalai battle II which went wrong for the SLA (although SLA killed over 200 tigers in that), a couple of SLA platoons, many with wounded, got separated from the main units and were later captured by the LTTE and carted off to somewhere in the Vanni. There, the LTTE women cadres are reported to have first danced around the terrified captives screaming wildly and started hacking them with machetes and swords. This info. which came from a Karuna mole in the LTTE, was later confirmed when the dead bodies were handed over to the ICRC and delivered to the SLA whereby almost all the bodies were noticed to have deep cut wounds that a soldier would not get in today's battles.

    So, the LTTE treatment of captured SLDF boys is nothing new. I've heard many other stories with gruesome details, but as those have not been published in the media (unlike the above, which was), I will refrain from relating them here.

    When you think that these are the same killers who have raided poor Sinhela farming villages in the Trinco/Ampara districts and carried out horrific atrocities, it is easy to understand this sort of cruelty to captured soldiers is nothing.

    In the village attacks, the typical modus-operandi is as follows (for those who are unawre):

    First the LTTE raiders would forcefully grab the infants off their mothers protective hands and then taking the infants by the legs, smash their skulls on mud huts and tree trunks so that the brain matter from the burst skulls would splash onto the screaming mothers who would then be either summarily shot, hacked and left to bleed, or instantly beheaded.

    Anyway, there are many of our own juicy "return the favor to LTTE" retribution stories that when one hears, one feels truly delighted, but I will not go into those here.

    OaO Asithri

    ReplyDelete
  13. The most important question that remains to be answered following the Thoppigala operations is whether, as one of the other blog members pointed out, the SLDFs can hold and secure the area while in all eventuality operations will shift northwards.

    Once these sweeping assaults on the LTTE strongholds are complete the area becomes vulnerable to LTTE infiltrations in a heavily forested part of the island ideal for guerrilla warfare and no army in the world can prevent that from happening short of building a wall separating LTTE controlled areas and government administered areas (like in Israel). If this happens, we are basically creating Eelam for them!

    The native population of the east is already frustrated with having to spend a very long period of time in refugee camps and some have even lost their land all together to make way for the coal power plant and the HSZs surrounding it in Sampoor. Once they return would they really cooperate with the defence forces to identify LTTE members?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oshada, after just been resettled, I think the last thing these people want is more war. They know if the LTTE infiltrates the area, there will be further conflict and they may have to flee from their homes again and face more suffering. A majority absolutely do not want that. Especially among the east-coast Tamils, who are suspicious of the mostly Vellalar norther leaders ambitions.

    That is why the LTTE enjoys significantly more support amongst expat Tamils than those living in Sri Lanka. The expats don't have to worry about what's going on in the country. Just open up their check book and attend a few rallies. They don't give a shit about what happens to their fellow Tamils in the war zones.

    I also think that's where Karuna / Pilliyan might play a big role. They know the area well. We give them certain concession and some political power in the east, they can help our troops protect it.

    But even more than that, if we give civilians freedom to fish or farm or whatever they do, and develop the area - like giving them electricity for the first time in 15 years - the last thing they're going to want is for the LTTE to return. That's why the government was so keen to (sometimes forcibly) resettle the IDPs in Vakarai. Win them over and they could be a vital resource.

    ReplyDelete
  15. illegal.existence, I know that the people of the east would like nothing more than to return to their homes to resume their lives. But my point was that these people fear both the LTTE AND the security forces. If you analyse the situation as it is now both the LTTE and the army are willing to use violence to intimidate the civilians (in the case of the armed forces, they will be pressuring the civilians to notify them of any LTTE members hiding amongst them and the LTTE will hunt down anyone exposes one of its members - thus continuing the age long circle of violence).

    Speedy rehabilitation was a double edged sword. For example in the case of Vakarai the resettlement was so rapid that there was not enough time for complete de-mining of the area due to political reasons. Furthermore, there were some reports that the government essentially put the people on buses and just took them back to Vakarai, while the civilians themselves expressed their reluctance to return to the East at the time due to the ongoing fighting. Simply, would you go home if you knew that there were still battles going on where you lived, despite the offer of electricity for the first time in your home? Nevertheless, later reports by foreign aid agencies and embassies in Colombo have expressed their approval of the repatriation of the eastern civilians, crediting the government for providing the refugees with adequate security to allow them to return home.

    In terms of Karuna/Pillian, there is an interesting article explaining his activities in the East:

    http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=400366&category=Frontend&Country=SRI%20LANKA

    It seems that the guy is getting to be a real burden for the government and essentially replacing the evicted LTTE!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Guys just adding some highlights from Athas sit report, the vavuniya battle:

    -----------------

    On June 2, the 56 Division (four battalions) and 57 Division (seven battalions) launched a limited pre-dawn operation to seize more terrain. The general areas of Villatikulam, North and North West of the village of Kalmadu (already under Security Forces control) were the scenes of fierce battles.

    By 8 a.m. that day, Tiger guerrillas launched a counter attack. Groups of guerrillas confronted the troops almost head on. Heavy fighting continued for over seven hours. Troops were forced to make a tactical withdrawal. Later that evening, the guerrillas fired 130 mm artillery. More than 800 of the Army's own 130 mm artillery shells were destroyed after one of them fell at a storage area south east of Pompeimadu. It led to deafening explosions and a massive bonfire. During the fighting, a group of guerrillas made an attempt to infiltrate the defence lines. Four of them were shot dead. Sporadic fighting in the area has continued in the past several days. Troops are making repeated efforts to move into the area. They are meeting with heavy resistance.

    Security Forces were tight lipped about their own casualties. The Sunday Times has learnt from highly placed Army sources that five officers and 67 soldiers were killed. A further two officers and 24 soldiers are declared missing in action. Twenty officers and 298 soldiers were wounded in action. These sources claimed that 800 guerrillas were killed and a further 700 were wounded. The claims of guerrilla casualties, no doubt, are on the higher side.

    Adding statistics of claimed guerrilla deaths as well as injuries in the recent months would have surpassed the numbers military top brass give as the total strength of the LTTE. Independent verification of guerrilla casualty figures is not possible. Among the items the Army lost was an armoured Buffel troop carrier that had moved to evacuate casualties, a Jeep, arms and ammunition. A 152 mm heavy artillery gun was damaged.

    ----------------------------

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thoppigala battles:

    --------------------
    In the East, since the re-capture of Vakarai the Army had continued their operations until areas astride the A-5 Maha Oya-Chenkaladi Road were brought under Government control. Another operation to seize areas in and around Baroni’s Cap or Thoppigala - Narakamulla began on June 8. Before the crack of dawn that day, commandos ventured into guerrilla-held area to launch attacks on their camps. Some of the camps were captured and later destroyed. By 7.30 a.m. ahead of the villages of Panjimarathadi and Narakamulla, the guerrillas launched fierce counter attacks. By evening troops were forced to make a tactical withdrawal to their original positions north of Rugam.

    The next day troops fired artillery at guerrilla positions. It drew retaliatory fire. In the days that followed, they gradually advanced to encompass the area. Bitter fighting continues. Although the original guerrilla strength in the area was said to be around 400, the numbers had dwindled to just over 200 this week - an indication that the guerrillas were withdrawing despite a siege of sorts. At least four guerrillas who surrendered have told the Security Forces how unknown soldiers and members of the Karuna faction, who were held prisoner had been killed by the guerrillas. A prelude to an ultimate withdrawal has also seen the guerrillas trying to step up pressure on the Security Forces. However, they feel the re-capture of the areas, the accomplishment of their aim, is only days away.

    In the fighting 15 soldiers have been killed. Six officers and 142 soldiers have been wounded, according to highly placed Army sources. These sources claimed 400 guerrillas were killed and 100 more were wounded. Here again the number is on the higher side. If past guerrilla casualties in the East were added to these figures, it would have exceeded the guerrilla strength there. Independent verification of guerrilla casualties is not possible. The LTTE has in the recent years been playing down its casualty figures. This is where the axiom that truth is the first casualty of war becomes relevant.

    ---------------------------

    ReplyDelete
  18. Selectively quoting from Iqbal Athas's extremely pessimistic articles isn't going to hide the fact that your friends are having their asses handed to them by our military in the East.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oshada I agree with you about Karuna. That bugger appears to be becoming a real pain. But he may just be a necessary evil. The EPDP weren't angels went we had them in charge of some places in the North pre-2002, but they did their job well.

    Most of the LTTE and TNA/TULF leaders are from the north and I don't think Karuna was lying when he said people of the east were sick of been taken advantage of by them. Obviously the army has to keep up hunting down suspected LTTE cadres, and that will lead to some acts of so-called "terror", but if the government plays it's cards right and keeps to their promises of speedily developing the newly "liberated" areas, I think we could get the civilians behind us.

    Also according to the Sunday papers the report that the government wanted to recruit 50,000 to the armed forces is correct, and it is in order to help us secure newly taken territory. A significant proportion of the recruited is supposed to be for the STF, who will take over security in the east when the army moves out.

    It will be hard to keep the LTTE out, but unlike early Eelam Wars, it appears the long term military planing is a lot, lot better this time.

    ReplyDelete
  20. "Selectively quoting from Iqbal Athas's extremely pessimistic articles isn't going to hide the fact that your friends are having their asses handed to them by our military in the East. "

    If you have a problem with Athas why not take it up with him?

    He has been MIA for a few weeks so I posted the only action related items in his piece, the rest was too long to post here so not entirely sure where you get all this 'your friends' and all that from, but now I remember you the little kid with the potty mouth, so not even worth my time.

    I am sure most readers are capable of browsing to the Sunday Times, well there goes my master plan of twisting the news and keeping them all in the dark, oh dear what ever shall I do now? I have been outed by a potty mouthed 12 year old, can you direct me to the nearest bridge I need to jump off...

    ReplyDelete
  21. "In the fighting 15 soldiers have been killed. Six officers and 142 soldiers have been wounded,"

    This is the total number of SLA KIA in the entire Thoppigala battle not only in Narakamulla battle.

    ReplyDelete
  22. the entire nation salutes those 15 heroes who paid the ultimate sacrifice... Hope both our political and military leadership won't make those sacrifices go in vain...

    ReplyDelete
  23. Quoting More on this week's RIvira defence column, there was a note thier about the astonishing raid to the LTTE's bunkerline by the commonados. According to that report, the commandos in thier surprice attack have killed around 30 terrorists while securing the bunkerline. In one occassion, a commando who raided a bunker was shot by a female terrorist and had fallen down. The commando who survived the attack due to his protective vest, returned fire using his secondary weapon (pistol hidden in his leg) and finished off the job.
    This shows the value of using protective equipment. I had a great doubt about the SF soldiers not wearing helmets. Its very promising and proud looking to see them wearing those black cloths around their heads but isn't is a more safe move to wear the protective helmets for them as well. TIgers usually use lot of mortors and claymores and splinters of such explossions can easily take a severe hit of the vulnerable areas of the troops. Isnt is a logical point to use helmets for these special troops as well. Why aren't they using them? Is it bcos they are too heavy?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thunrurwan Saranai, my dear brave heroes.
    I'm sure you will capture the Beiruit camp in no time.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Asithri..i read your article about the LTTE massacre of SLA POWS (muhamalai battle)with the utmost sadness (euphemism) considering a lot of my friends are currently in the army.For a moment i became weak and envisaged a situation whereby we tie each cadres hands and feet to a different horse and tear each one apart slowly while filling their exposed flesh with salt and chilli-nothing like the good old pharoahs to teach us valuable techniques.But i have to contain my feelings and think of the big picture.No wonder the president was furious.The quicker this is over the better for all our peoples.God bless our brave troops

    ReplyDelete
  26. Defence.lk has copied a DefenceNet article word by word and posted in on their site:

    http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070624_05

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thank you Defencenet for all the updates..

    To asithri,

    What you said about Muhamale POW's must be true..The last 30 years of fighting, LTTE released lauzy 8 POWS's (that was after 2002 CFA)..I guess they killed upto 2000-5000 SLA POWS prior to the CFA, aginst the 6000 LTTE suspects GOSL released after the CFA in 2002....That is one reason why, we can call LTTE a true TERRORIST entity..GOSL shouldn't go to that level.

    My heart goes to all SLA heroes who lost their lives defending this country..We must look after the people they left behind..
    Hope this war will be over soon.

    My guess is that, what we should do is to put a total blockade(except for humanitarian aides) of Vanni.Like NATO in Serbia against the serb forces, call in more air raids on all vital LTTE installations...Sea blockade is vital at the same time..
    NO DOUBT LTTE will crumble in NO TIME..
    =============
    It is a good move if we are not going for the expensive MIG29C's.
    The best example is Bangladesh, which is having nightmares keeping the MIG29C fleet in operation according to one source.

    ReplyDelete
  28. http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/6267

    More LTTE diehards on the UK police net.

    ReplyDelete
  29. From another blog,

    If you have missed this.
    [
    The War at Sea
    June 20, 2007: Over the last two days, the navy engaged a fleet of two dozen LTTE boats off the northeast coast. The LTTE were trying to smuggle in people, explosives, weapons and ammunition. Four of the boats were rigged with explosives and manned by crews who planned to ram larger navy gunboats. About a third of the LTTE boats were sunk, and another third damaged. The navy suffered no losses, but most of the boats got away, heading back to India. The LTTE lost about 40 people, plus another thirty in unrelated land combat. The LTTE itself is in turmoil, with many Tamils eager to make any kind of deal, before the continued resistance triggers large scale violence against the Tamil population. But the LTTE leadership continues to insist on partitioning the island.


    June 19, 2007: In the east, LTTE camps continue to be discovered and destroyed. Captured documents give a better picture of the LTTE military organization in the area. Hundreds of LTTE members have turned themselves in, and provided more information.



    June 18, 2007: The LTTE ammunition shortage is obvious, with less and less return fire coming from the LTTE, after the government troops open fire with artillery and mortars.



    June 17, 2007: In the capital, police arrested 28 Tamils as suspected LTTE terrorists. All signs indicate the LTTE is trying to organize some urban terror attacks, and the government is trying to avoid any anti-Tamil violence in the cities. The years of LTTE violence has made the Sinhalese majority (as well as Christian and Moslem minorities) increasingly anti-Tamil. Even the Buddhist clergy has become very anti-Tamil.



    June 15, 2007: Police have become increasingly vigilant at checkpoints, as the LTTE are making more efforts to smuggle explosives into cities, to be used for spectacular terrorist bombings. Several of these attempts have been discovered, The LTTE no longer has the battlefield strength to win against the army, and is relying more on terror attacks to demoralize the government.



    June 14, 2007: The government has is receiving, from China, 70,000 120 mm mortar shells, 68,000 152 mm artillery shells and 50,000 81 mm mortar shells. These weapons are used daily to disrupt the movement of LTTE fighters around their fortified positions. June 13, 2007: Stronger and more numerous army patrols in the north and south are finding more LTTE camps and weapons caches. Some of the camps appear to have been abandoned some time ago, indicating a high desertion rate, or a lot of difficulty recruiting. The rebels are generally falling back after taking a few casualties. This is different than the past, where at least some of the LTTE troops would fight to the death.

    ]

    ReplyDelete
  30. From the above article..

    I don't know why the author says, LTTE boats retreated to India after the rout by SLN.Must be headed back to Vanni...Hmm they slipped away, it seems.

    ReplyDelete
  31. http://www.colombopage.com/archive_07/June2465100CH.html

    ReplyDelete
  32. tangara,
    can you plz give me the source of above article.

    thanks

    ReplyDelete

  33. Request to all bloggers: Please to not make any assumptions about our connections to government or defence.lk web site. One of our articles has appeared (http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070624_05) on the govt controlled www.defence.lk site. Although the article does not cite its source, an avert reader will notice that it was published in DefenceNet blog one day ago.(http://defencenet.blogspot.com/2007/06/2-commando-regiment-approaches-beiruit.html)

    DefenceNet blog is updated by 5 individuals (the account used to comment and post articles is a shared account) who are in no way affiliated to the above mentioned site. None of the administrators of this blog were contacted before www.defence.lk published the article.

    Note - You are free to copy, republish, link or display RSS feeds (or do whatever you wish) of DefenceNet articles. We really dont mind that. This announcement is made to clarify one point; DefenceNet is not government controlled and is NOT affiliated with www.defence.lk


    Thanks LST for bringing our attention to this.

    ReplyDelete
  34. From The Island
    Lanka concerned over Chinese-built LTTE arms
    By Shamindra Ferdinando

    A deeply concerned Sri Lankan government is likely to draw China’s attention to a clandestine arms pipeline to the LTTE amidst growing evidence that the group has acquired a sizeable quantity of Chinese manufactured equipment.

    The government is expected to seek China’s help to halt vital military supplies to the LTTE. Last week’s capture of an LTTE attack craft about six nautical miles east of the LTTE stronghold at Thalaiady highlighted the Chinese arms link.

    The 16-metre vessel believed to be built at an Indonesian boatyard carried an assortment of Chinese manufactured arms including a 14.5 twin barrel anti-aircraft weapon capable of hitting targets at a range of about 2000 metres. This is the first of its kind recovered from the LTTE.

    An authoritative government source said that the recovery was the largest single detection of Chinese made arms since Sri Lanka briefed Beijing about LTTE efforts to acquire arms, ammunition and equipment from China early this year.

    The SLN seized the vessel after a confrontation Tuesday night off the Thalaiady coast. A Sea Tiger raid on Point Pedro waters triggered a six-hour battle which was repulsed by the SLN with the support of the army.


    The army had brought devastating artillery and MBRLs (multi barrel rocket launchers) into play on a Sea Tiger flotilla, initially detected south of Point Pedro. This long range fire had an overwhelming impact on the flotilla before the SLN Fast Attack Craft (FAC) squadrons had swung into action.

    Dismissing assertion that the SLN had captured an enemy craft disabled by the artillery fire, the SLN emphasized that there was undeniable evidence that it was first hit by P 412, a Fast Attack Craft (FAC) deployed along with three similar craft.

    A 107 mm rocket fired from P 412 had damaged the enemy craft which had also been hit by 30 mm fire. It had capsized and two SLN personnel subsequently jumped into the water to secure a towline enabling the navy to tow the captured vessel to Kankesanthurai on Wednesday morning.

    The SLN deployed four squadrons of FACs which ultimately overwhelmed the enemy, naval sources said. The SLN also found evidence that two Chinese built 12.7 mm guns had been mounted on the captured vessel on a previous occasion.

    "We found two mounts and ammunition," an official said.

    The captured LTTE attack craft (Indumathie) carried three 7.62 mm multi purpose machine guns and one sub machine guns - all of Chinese origin and the corresponding ammunition. The video footage of the battle showed that five enemy craft of similar type (categorized by the Sea Tigers as Wave Rider) were destroyed by FACs during the night battle.

    The cutting edge of the SLN is its FAC squadrons primarily operating out of Trincomalee and Kankesanthurai.

    The SLN filmed on video 16 craft similar to the one captured and towed to Kankesanthurai. The sources pointed out that all these craft may well have been armed with Chinese weapons.

    These craft, just five metres shorter than the SLN’s 21 metre Israeli-built Dvoras, were equipped with Japanese JRC radar and four Japanese-built 250 horsepower outboard motors (OBMs), a US Gamin GPS (Global Positioning System) of Korean make and four communication sets for boat to boat and boat to land communication.

    The communication sets are of both Chinese and Japanese makes. Although such communication equipment could have been easily accessed, the Tigers acquiring Japanese radar and powerful OBMs which had been built by Yamaha was of serious concern, highly placed government sources said.

    The seizure of the vessel revealed the existence of a vast international LTTE procurement network with unlimited funds, security sources said.

    "It was truly an international product," an official said while expressing concern over the absence of what he termed a mechanism to deny terrorist groups access to arms, ammunition and equipment. He estimated that each boat would have cost a sizeable amount.

    Early this year the SLN captured an LTTE craft mounted with a single barrel 14.5 mm weapon. During a recent visit to Beijing by UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Chinese officials said that they thoroughly investigated Sri Lanka’s claim that the LTTE had received Chinese built military hardware.

    Wickremesinghe’s was confident that China would never act in a manner detrimental to Sri Lanka’s interests. Government sources said that they do not suspect China of arming the LTTE but the fact that Chinese armaments were seized from the LTTE could not be taken lightly.

    "Maybe there’s a third party involvement," an official said.

    Since September last year the SLN intercepted and destroyed four LTTE vessels carrying armaments on the deep seas, two of them on a single day.

    ReplyDelete
  35. According to "reliable sources" the British Govt has arrested LTTE members of the following organisations.
    The ltte youth organisation,the U 18 ltte cricket team,members from ltte tamil sangams,the ltte petrol station attendants association,some employees of the BBC with odd giveaway moustaches and giveaway trainers,the british blue sarong bata slippers association.

    ReplyDelete
  36. members of the ltte "hartal club" were given a special warning about undressing at german airports-(given the proximity to hot corrosive exhaust gases from jet engines)

    ReplyDelete
  37. Dear Patriots

    The Jungle tactics shown by our forces are second to none. Even US elites will fail in this terrain. I have first hand info about the rocky and bushy terrain in Thoppigala. US would have put a tactical nuke rather than carrying commando ops as our guys do. You need bloody guts to accomplish a task like this. My suggestion to all top defence people in this country is to convert the Thoppigala to a SF and Commando training center. Put up a huge base without disturbing (Minimizing) the Eco system. Never let anybody step in to this sacred historic and strategic area again.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Dear Patriots

    The Jungle tactics shown by our forces are second to none. Even US elites will fail in this terrain. I have first hand info about the rocky and bushy terrain in Thoppigala. US would have put a tactical nuke rather than carrying commando ops as our guys do. You need bloody guts to accomplish a task like this. My suggestion to all top defence people in this country is to convert the Thoppigala to a SF and Commando training center. Put up a huge base without disturbing (Minimizing) the Eco system. Never let anybody step in to this sacred historic and strategic area again.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anything new on Toppigala battles?

    ReplyDelete
  40. MBRL, the Commandos, SF, and STF wear whatever kit is necessary at the time. Most of the pix we see of the SF are publicity or training pix, and so they're wearing soft hats, bandanas, etc. If they are in an environment where they are under indirect enemy fire they will wear helmets, flak vests and other protective gear.

    ReplyDelete
  41. milmi i think thoppigala is an area with a large elephant herd.I think they need to be resettled there to stop them from attacking houses.

    ReplyDelete
  42. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  43. ccc... these can be obtained by the highest bidder mate easy 14.5mm canon Burma or Cambodia. Japanese radar and outboard motors easy Malasia,S'pore & Hongkong. Chinese arms many are captured SLA forces stock from past battles ! But, SLN needs to sink these ltte ships... that's our achilles Heels mate !

    ReplyDelete
  44. forces have sunk 4-5 muraj's including the captured one... that has to be a significant loss to sea tigers...
    Didn't now SLN had twin barrel guns like they had on the muraj

    ReplyDelete

All DefenceNet members will communicate using the account DefenceNet bearing profile number 11553575476849786179. This number can be found at the end of Profile URL. Beware of impostors.

Comments with racist remarks, personal attacks and misinformation will be deleted. Replying to any such comment will only encourage the saboteurs to post more. We request all our readers to ignore such postings and continue the discussion without diverting from the theme of the blog.