Thursday, December 27, 2007

Fighting reported in Mannar

Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) today captured the North Western part of Narikkulam region after a fierce firefight with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who previously controlled the territory. LTTE offered stiff resistance for six hours before the army overran some of the LTTE bunkers in the frontline.

Map image

This is the second consecutive day in which fighting was reported in this area. Clashes first erupted when the army tried to overrun the LTTE bunker line in Narikkulam yesterday (26th). The bunker line was not captured yesterday as expected but the objective was met today (27th), after a delay of one day.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) warplanes carried out an aerial raid on a LTTE target in Mullaithiv region at 6.10 AM today. The target was a major sea tiger base in Ellamulavaikkal, north of LTTE stronghold of Mullaithiv town. Although the pilots have confirmed accurate hits on the target, LTTE casualty details are not available as of now.

26 comments:

  1. Tamilnet reports that Benazir Bhutto has died in a Suicide attack here http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=24109

    Is there a bit of pride behind this report, implying that LTTE terrorist tactics are being adopted by international terrorist groups?

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  2. nice blog thank u for all the info:)

    i have 2 questions

    1. where is Narikkulam located(can't see it in the map!)?

    2. anybody know how much area the LTTE has control currently ?

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  3. lkdood,
    It's located North west of Giant's tank (the lake below Udaiyadi in the Map).

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  4. rofl. army capture so much nowadays, LTTE must have nothing more than 1 squaremeter.

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  5. the boss-
    Than you for the confirmation of the size of pig farm.

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  6. Perein..hehehe..not pig farm bro..underage brothel

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  7. Paedophilia runs deep in the fabled tamil eelam then. Mothers, lock up your children!!!- Oh, it's 30 years too late. Those poor kids. No wonder they're driven to blowing themselves up.

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  8. I agree, the we need improve the coordination between the SLAF and the SLN.

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  9. To all, best answer to the ppl like, "the boss " is silence.

    Thank You

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  10. Let me make few points.

    1.0

    Flying low

    It is known MIGs and Kfirs fly low and slow to take the targets most of the time. Also SLAF attack atleast once a week on avarage for number of years. Thus LTTE AA gun operaters have enough experiance. Given the fact that 1 MIG was hit by AA fire on pra-bra incident SLAF should seriosly rethink on flying low and slow.

    2.0 Under water

    Only after tigers flied and bobmed we think about air defence systems. Now it is said LTTE has a submarine or under water skooter. SLN should not make the same mistake and need to be prepared.

    3.0 No Dying for our see - Let them die for it.

    It is clear now SLN FACs were out numbered by 16 see-tiger attack crafts. Even though that shows the braveness of our grate navy I beleive SLN too need to copy SLA's slogan ; no dying for our land-let them die for it. It seems it's not SLN was boxed by see-tigers and hit rather SLN started attacking knowing the number of enimy crafts. Had they withdrawed (assuming it was an option) we could have saved lives.

    4.0 Dora vs Life

    It is not possible to fight a war without losing lives or matariel. However I was wondering even though the dora was hit why the sailers were unable to save their lives. (2 did) May be they had only few seconds after they knew it was gonna hit. Doras can be built again later. But SLN need to come up with a strartgy to save lives in such an incedent. I think this possible. Training should include not only dying for country but also saving your life for country.
    At the same time our media need to say about heroic brave SLN as normaly SLN get less space in media compared to SLA.

    5.0 Blue water navy

    Next time LTTE might use more advanced (more range) whepons fixed on their next vessels. And try to get SLN closer and attack. I hope SLN has a method for such a trick.

    6.0 Communication, Estimation & Risk

    It is true communication is a must in a war. Most of the tiger casualties are uncovered by their radio messeges and SLA beleives that numbers. (SLA spoksman once said it is more reliable than ground based sources and it is 100% accurate. Dnet also has same veiw.)
    However in any case if SLA were misled by this radio messeges SLA is seriously under estimate enimy and probably walking into a death trap in wanni. Jayasikuru is a big lesson to SLA and must learn every hting from it.

    7.0 What next?

    Finally, there are some rutine tiger treatments we didn't get recently. Claymores for soldiers going on leave, high ranked VIPs, AAB type ones and some thing new...

    LTTE has not given up. And there is no question LTTE will be more determined in 2008. Also so far LTTE never used thier maximum capability in any of the battles.

    Observing SLN movements and come up with more power (by simply increasing number of crafts) so that they can beat atleast one dora is not a some thing surprising. Unfortunately SLN was not prepared for this "increased preparedness" of LTTE. It's the same stratergy LTTE used in all the unceasing waves for which SLA couldn't find an answer. I hope SLDF consider this very common LTTE stratergy atleast now.

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  11. bump. repeat

    DefenceNet & Guys,

    Something that puzzeled me for a long time; please shed some light on this.

    If a artillery, say a normal 120mm one is dropped from a helicopter from a height of 3,000 m what would happen?

    Will it blast, just destroy without a blast or fall dead flat?

    I did many searches in internet and in books couldn't get any satisfactory answer.

    I'm not refering to Fletchers or kenetic arrows; I'm also aware of the fourth article of the Geneve Convention that bans dropping mortars in civilian areas (among other events).

    Anyone?

    Thank you

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  12. Yo Einstein,

    Here is some theory and what really happens in practise (corrupt lanka style):

    It will explode on impact, cuz its an impact detonator.

    But then again lets examine whats happens with a typical shell in lanka arsenal, one of those Pakistani shells (where the likes of Mervyn De Silva or Ronnie Peiris made a buck or two in commissions), bought for the 1980s Afghan-Soviet have a 50:50 chance of doing anything.

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  13. Anyways, speaking of accidental explosions.

    Puthinam.com reported earlier that scores of SLN were injured, some critically when mounting a missile onto one of SLNs missile frigates.

    I wanted to hear if this was confirmed.

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  14. Guy,

    Upul is a LTTE man looking for something in this Blog. Please be careful...

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  15. Upul

    Why dont u get that info from Puthinam itself.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi guys,

    UAV Technology..

    I've been thinking of this idea After AAB attack..

    I'm not sure this idea already existing.

    Present day UAV always flying over the sky to watch the ground activities and not able to land
    on enemy territory and it's noisy. Enemy could detect such UAV. in fact they are big in size.

    think about a Birds such as Eagle or native birds like Crows or any other Birds. Birds fly many miles and land
    on another territory it could be on a tree or on land. some birds could land on water..

    Why Can't we apply the same technique for UAV to build the Virtual Bird(VB UAV) or Artificial Bird which means Artificial Bird must be similar to a real Bird in look, size, colour.

    the Virtual Bird should have minimum three Cameras. two Cameras fitted into where Eyes are located
    one more back side (could have more if needed). must have GPS fitted, must be able to record sounds and send signal to
    main controlling station, should be able to send signal or pictures to Fighter Air craft, should have night vision capability.
    should be able to Land on a tree on any ground, may be land on water

    should be able to fly long hours, if needed and use Solar power to re-charge. noise should be minimum

    no wheels for landing. only two feets like a bird landing..



    I don't have technological knowledge to convert this theory to practical something workable.

    I'm sure this could be the future of UAV.

    Think about when man discovered the mobile phone, size was too big and less features..
    present day mobile phones are small in size, easy to carry, has got lots of features, like Video
    GPS technology, internet facility, etc.

    I’m sure we could improve Current UAV to behave like a Bird to gather information from Enemy territory.

    Some thing additional feature could be added into Virtual Bird.

    Virtual Bird could act as a Command Centre (obviously control by the central control station may be in Colombo).
    Virtual Bird Could carry smaller Birds (may be 5) or smaller Flies or like Beatles.
    Those smaller Beatles should be able to fly short distance, re-charge from solar or from main virtual Bird, may have a tiny camera fitted,
    should have GPS and able to send Signal to Control station or to a fighter air craft. then Pilot could use that signal to attack.

    Military Intelligent Unit could use this type of technology to find enemy and their assets even in the thick forest.

    Main control station could monitor the attack..

    Main Virtual Bird could hide those five Beatles under the wings, when fly from one location to another.


    We could use this idea to attack LTTE Boats because We could use the small Beatles to land on a boat and send the signal to Navy or to a Fighter Pilot to use Fire & Forget method to attack the location.

    We could use this technology to find LTTE Bunkers, hiding places, Prabakaran's Locations, records their meetings, etc with or without human intervention.

    Hope LTTE will not pickup this idea.

    Feel free to add your critics for this..

    ReplyDelete
  17. moshe dayan,

    Why would you want to drop an artillery shell from a helicopter?? They do have all sorts of dumb bombs that can be dropped from aircraft which will be as or effective than artillery shells.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Rutherfed, big problem would be size. A Searcher isn't made 20ft long because the manufacturer wants to make it 20ft long. It's because the manufacturer has to make it 20ft long to fit in the power plants, avionics, control systems etc. Smaller size components = much greater cost. Which is why foreign (rich) countries use satellites to monitor enemy activities without bringing any attention to themselves.

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  19. Ninja Bandara,
    I myself am interested in this procedure of estimating enemy casualties by listening to enemy communication transmissions.

    Defencenet, other knowledgeable bloggers could you explain how reliable if at all this method is?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Moshe Dayan,

    If you would drop an artillery shell with the casing from 3000ft, three things could happen. It could explode if severe pressure is mounted on the warhead or just sunk into the ground or the shell could be destroyed without exploding (the artillery warhead is protected by a safety fuse to prevent it exploding). All the above are 'subject to' artillery shell type, brand, make, ground condition, angle of hitting the ground etc.. etc). Perhaps, it has a 33% or less chance for the shell to explode (mind that even the specifically designed air-dropped dumb bombs fail to explode, when dropped even higher heights i.e. 10,000 - 15,000 ft owing to the same above conditions).

    It is totally un-economical to drop Artillery Rounds from an Aircraft. A air-dropped, free fall dumb bomb has more than 85% of its weight containing explosives. The artillery warhead is about or less than 1/6th of the total weight of the whole shell i.e. 48Kg shell has about 7.0 -8.0 pounds of explosives.

    I believe that it is not necessary to further explain why dropping artillery rounds from air is not a wise option, when more leaner options are there, with all the safety features built-in.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Rutherfurd,

    Latest spy technology uses live birds and other animals fitted with high-tech gadgets to spy for you.

    People who developed aircraft and helicopters first tried very hard to mimic birds, and failed because the man-maid machines could never achieve similar efficiency ratios compared to birds. That's why they developed planes and helicopters.

    One-day, nano and quantum technologies will allow us to achieve near efficiencies as live animals, until then UAVs based on planes, helicopters, flying saucers etc and Satellite technology with better optics will help to safeguard the general public from terrorists.

    Miniaturization of optics and achieving higher magnifying and picture stability levels can help the current UAV technology to enhance value of its platforms. Battery technology is also highly advancing in a rapid phase due to energy issues (i.e. fuel cells etc), and that also will help to build better UAVs with higher endurance levels.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Overall, radio inteception is a pretty reliable method if done properly (I.E- Code cracked successfully, tuned to the correct and valid channel etc).
    Radio interception is usually the FIRST method of enemy casualty estimation. But it is not the ONLY method. There are far more reliable sources such as ground based intel that are used to confirm radio intercepted figures at a later time. This confirmation takes time as ground based intel reports take more time to come in.

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  23. Why does defence.lk and other gov information sources continously mention casualty figures based on enemy communications?

    Is this just to attach some sort of credibility and non-accountabily to enemy casualty figures?

    All in all I hope that the realistic count of heads is being kept by those responsible in the forces.

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  24. Guys,

    Ignore LTTE pricks in the forum..

    Don't waiste time arguing with these dumb a$$ LTTE maveers....

    ReplyDelete
  25. Defnet,guys(a little off topic)

    Why dont we use Napalm to deny the tigers tree-cover?..is it illegal,& if so,what are the consequences of using them?..i know,the americans used them during vietnam,but if we use it,will human rights-groups cry foul?..after all,we do use thermobaric weapons,which are banned by the UN,rite?..

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  26. "Why dont we use Napalm to deny the tigers tree-cover?"

    Napalm doesn't cause widespread destruction of jungle cover. It's very localised. The US used Agent Orange to destroy the jungle in Vietnam. Napalm was used as an anti-personnel weapon.

    ReplyDelete

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