Thursday, November 1, 2007

Mannar Offensive- 2nd Lead

Sri Lanka Army units from Sinha Regiment and Gajaba Regiment, backed by Army Commandos, who were involved in the pre-dawn attack on LTTE FDL in Mannar have now returned to the captured LTTE FDL after infiltrating further into LTTE areas. They have recovered at least 7 LTTE dead bodies and monitored communication revealed at least 15 more may have been killed. The Army lost three men and over 30 others were injured. The advance into LTTE areas was temporarily halted following heavy resistance in the area West of Giant Tank. Meanwhile a civilian was killed when a stray mortar hit her in the general area Murunkan.

12 comments:

GoldenEagle said...

Heavy hitting I see.

sldf said...

Defencewire, it seems SLA has intensified attacks on LTTE FDL. But loss of precious Sri Lankan army lives is quite painful. Are we over working/stretching the Commandos and Army's Elite Special Forces Brigades? Why not use special infantry units for these FDL attacks and use Special Forces Brigades and commandos for more recon and Intel operations? Hope these brave souls are least back by Artillery and MBRL's. Why don’t they call SLAF for close air support?

Anonymous said...

weldone !!!hit hard boys hit hard as much as u can. the only prb we have now is rain. i believe without this worst weather condition our boys can do some more accurate n successful ops. may triple gem bless our war heroes.

Unknown said...

Air force don't want to humiliate themselves again just incase if it was shot down or so called "mechanical failure" , the news coming up states that over 40SL Army has died and over 100 in Anuradapura hospital, and the SLA has abandon its mission in Mannar, with heavy casualties. DefenceWire can you confirm that please?

KBS said...

state your (fictitious) news sources, kaavalan

Unknown said...

Hi defencewire, why is both Defence.lk and Tamilnet claiming this was an LTTE offensive instead?

Was that how it started? Or just not true. thanks.

sldf said...

"Reliable sources in Kilinochchi say that a major battle between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is looming at the mouth of the Jaffna peninsula.
According to the sources, the SLA is gathering in the peninsula at full force to launch a three prong offensive to capture the Pooneryan region from the LTTE.
Pooneryan is a major artillery launch pad from here the LTTE's 122mm and 135mm artillery shells are fired in the militarised high security zone of the SLA.
Sources say that an amphibian assault team of specially trained SLA soldiers are preparing to make a mid-night landing from their bases in the Kayts islets and that they will be joined by land forces moving in from Killali and Muhamalai.

According to same sources, large number of LTTE Special Forces have also been deployed in the area to safeguard the Tamil villages from the Sinhala invaders."

- tamileditors.com

"safeguard the Tamil villages from the Sinhala invaders." How nice of them :-)

Illegal.existence said...

Thanks for posting that sldf, I'm sure most people here don't read websites like tamileditors.com so would miss stories like that.

Tamilnet too seem convinced of some impending naval landing around Jaffna. They had an article a few days ago that said the Navy was increasing its troop strength around the islands of Jaffna in preperation for an offensive against Pooneryn.

Srilankan said...

Defensewire (when you have the time)were the army deaths due to mines?

Unknown said...

Same source where DefenceWire gets it from. Here is something you might find it useful:

"The defence ministry is... lying to the people by detailing exaggerated figures of the number of Tigers killed to achieve petty short term political objectives."

Judging by Sri Lankan government accounts of Tamil Tiger dead after decades of fighting, there should hardly be any rebels left.

The security forces say they killed 3,284 Tiger rebels between December 2005, when a Norwegian-brokered truce began falling apart, and September this year.

Senior officials have in the past claimed there were only 500 Tiger rebels left, or that 85 percent of the guerrilla army had been wiped out. Senior officials have in the past claimed there were only 500 Tiger rebels left, or that 85 percent of the guerrilla army had been wiped out.

Senior officials have in the past claimed there were only 500 Tiger rebels left, or that 85 percent of the guerrilla army had been wiped out.

In Sri Lanka, war dead don't add up
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071101/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaunrestmilitarycasualties_071101110833

Defencewire said...

sldf,
Losses like this isn't something we should worry about. Before 2002, we had lost over 2000 Special Forces and Commandos. Remember a time when the unit was almost reduced to a few hundred men! No comment on possible invasion plans.

kaavalan,
The casualty figures you provided seem a bit exaggerated. The mission was to neutralize the FDLs, not to hold ground. Heavy resistance experienced only West of Giant Tank. 100 soldiers injured could mean anything from severe injuries to immediate returnees to BF.

jack,
The offensive was initiated by SLA. part of 'humanitarian op'.

srilankan,
about 10% of casualties (not fatalities) were due to AP mines.

Srilankan said...

Thanks DefenceWire.
Defencewire..(when you have the time)..reading kvalns comments...(40Dead,100Injured).did the soldiers have helicopter gunship support?

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