Monday, February 11, 2008

War Grinds On

The advance into LTTE areas by Task Force I is taking longer than expected due to various trappings, despite plans for expediting military operations. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), desperate to end the SLA onslaughts have heavily entrapped terrain under its control, particularly in Mannar and Vavuniya fronts.

Some of the soldiers engaged in the limited offensives are losing limbs due to Johnny Mines (AP Mines). They have also buried mines in terrain infested with Unexploded Ordnance (UXOs) such as unexploded artillery shells. Exploding AP mines are setting-off these UXOs, causing secondary explosions. The Tigers have also buried the occasional Anti-Tank Mine targeting bulldozers engaged in mine clearing operations.

Meanwhile confirmation of the numbers of LTTE cadres killed in recent SLAF bombings have started to arrive. 17 LTTE intelligence cadres have been killed in the January 14th bombing of an LTTE Intelligence Base at Kombavil Kulam. 28 Cadres are confirmed dead in a recent attack on an LTTE base at Iranamadu. Another four cadres are confirmed dead in the SLAF attack on the LTTE Garage situated at Depot Junction, Kilinochchi. Several 'Canter' Trucks and a Jeep brought for repairs have also been destroyed.

A Sinhala language weekly had reported that LTTE Weli Oya Leader Kumaran has been injured in an LRRP attack and that he had returned to Weli Oya to coordinate attacks. This information needs to be corrected as follows. 'Lt. Col' Kumaran was injured in an LRRP attack six months ago. He is now paralyzed and will never return to battle. Another area commander from the Military Wing was targeted by LRRP recently. He has escaped with injuries.

15 comments:

Srilankan said...

DefenceWire,
How many soldiers have lost limbs due to APmines in the mannar and vuniya operations since 1/1/08?..do you have the figures.

Defencewire said...

Around 20

tikira said...

DW, thanks for the update,does this means tigers are successful in defending SLA, at those fronts ? or is it just a nother tough challenge for SLA.

LKDOOD said...

41 rebels, 3 security personnel killed in Sri Lanka

LINK

Srilankan said...

DefenceWire,
Many thanks for your reply.
Rushing this operation is absolute idiocy.

Cobra said...

"'Lt. Col' Kumaran was injured in an LRRP attack six months ago. He is now paralyzed and will never return to battle."

Hi DW,
LankaLibrary.com says Soosai, the Sea Tiger chief is crippled and confined to a wheelchair. Any confirmation on this?

Unknown said...

I can’t believe that I was so controversial.

At least I was helpful to some of you in identifying the true face of some others.

Thanks DW for the opportunity. You are doing a great job. Keep it up!

Sam Perera said...

silva aka ram,

You pretending to be Sinhalese and making racial remarks about Tamils are prety pathetic, it is not contorversial at all. This is the MO of many LTTE and supporters to create more racial hatred thinking that you can fool others.

tikira said...

silva aka ram was fuked last night at defence net,guys @defencewire ignore ths bastard,he uses different names to disrupt thease blog spots.guys dont reply to racist coments and pro tiger coments ,it will assure this blog spot wont become another defencenet.
(ANY SUSUPICIOS BEHAVIOR CAN BE CONFIRMED BY CLICKING ON THERE NAME, SO THAT THE PROFILE NUMBER AND DATE JOINED CAN BE VERIFIED)

tikira said...

SAM,well spotted mate

CASC said...

Cobra said...

LankaLibrary.com says Soosai, the Sea Tiger chief is crippled and confined to a wheelchair. Any confirmation on this?

Corbra,

There is a picture of Soosai attending TamilChelvam's funeral.
I understand that he was injured in an accidental explosion on board a boat and that his son was killed in the same explosion. He looks ok.

http://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2008/01/06_01_08_charlas_funeral_02.jpg

http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/search?q=sri+lanka

Moshe Dyan said...

the landmines, ap mines issue was discussed when the Vanni thrust began in very detail.

i can't understand why the SLAF bombers are not used extensively.

this war is about killing the maximum number of terrorists; we have the numerical superiority and must exploit it.

land grabbing is a strategy doomed to fail.

when a sizable number of terrorists are killed, they find it impossible to man their land. this is the time to advance.

rushing in before is foolish; delaying the killing process is even more stupid.

unfortunately the govt. strategy is NOT to kill the max. number of terrorists. they are more after encouraging more tigers to surrender by various means. this means our troops will have to take a heavy beating. the longer the troops sit as ducks the many would be the casualties, unless this strategy changes.

why can't the SLAF and SLN be given daily targets as given to the army?

the SLAF is mainly engaged in VIP jobs! it is not enough. even the planned purchase of F-7s are going to be used for interceptor roles; 6 of them!!
although they can carry out ground attacks, practically you cannot use a plane assigned for interception for other work.

this shows the govt. thinking. this is like when the dept. of public health of the CMC van comes for stray dogs, some people chase the doggies as it would be a sin to allow them to die. i read somewhere that the govt. has now decided to keep such dogs with foods, etc. this costs millions for the public; how stupid?

our kings were better Buddhists than the govt. idiots, but they were practical and intelligent. when killing 23,000 is needed killing a few thousand and expecting the others to surrender won't work.

the number of foot soldiers dying + losing limbs = Constant x (1/the number of tigers killed in thousands) - efficiency of mine & shell safety programs

Unknown said...

LTTE biggest weapon today is not the mines but the increase in the cost of living and a president who cannot put forward any soultion. As I have mentioned before the war needs to be won before the year ends. With Sarath Fonseka, removing his dateline, it reflects that the war will not end by the end of the year.

The biggest problem will be that Mahindha will need a scapegoat if things get worst by the end of the year. I guess it will be Fonseka who might be scarificed.

Hence even though the military is led by a good leader, the realities may force him out if he does not push harder. Hence the LTTE just needs to sit and wait for an advancing armed forces.

150 000 men and printing billions to pay such a large armed forces is not sustainable in the long run. Maybe rationing should be introduced to control prices.

chamal said...

moshe,

"why can't the SLAF and SLN be given daily targets as given to the army?"

Simple. We don't have money....that's why. We'll have to sell ourselves to purchase bombs and ammunition if we go like that

Moshe Dyan said...

navindran & chamal,

both got a point there.

but SLAF crafts (jets, gunships) have guns; at least they could use them.

there are air-dropped bombs (gravity bombs) that are relatively cheap; these can also be used. unnecessary arti., MBRL barrages with no LTTE casualties is an even bigger waste.

this brings up the important issue of increasing the productivity.
cost per 1 tiger death must be reduced as much as possible. also consider the massive number of personnel. if the total cost of maintaining 1 soldeir is 35,000 rupees a month, 325 of them means US$1 million a year. this is enough for many bombs. we plan to recruit another 10,000+ this year!!


SL has the highest inflation rate in SSEA today; this cannot continue. the only SUSTAINABLE solution to this is to exterminate the LTTE as soon as practically possible.

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