Wednesday, March 5, 2008

104 soldiers killed & 822 injured in February

One hundred and four soldiers were killed and eight hundred and twenty two were wounded during the fighting in last month, Leader of the House Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva told the Parliament a short while ago.

He said 80 civilians were also killed during the month of February and 201 were injured.

29 comments:

Unknown said...

May god rest all these souls :(

what a waste...

let's hope we can finish this cursed war off for good this time.

Anonymous said...

Word up man

admin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
IntelAttack said...

"the boss" must be crazy - CNN

LKDOOD said...

very sad about the lost of any life

LKDOOD said...

Sri Lanka recruits Tamil policemen in east

LINK


India, Sri Lanka review anti-LTTE operations

LINK

LKDOOD said...

any info on the LTTE & civilians on LTTE area ?

Defencewire said...

Over 500 LTTE dead according to our sources. There is currently a 4/1 ratio. Many of SLA deaths and injuries are due to IEDs.

GoldenEagle said...

defencewire

Do ou SF guys wear any sort of body armor. I heard once they wear flak jackets, dunno if this is true.

thiru said...

defencewire, if your gonna report the wrong ltte figures atleast get your math right-4:1 ratio means that the ltte casualties add up to over 400 not 500.

Defencewire said...

thiru,
a ratio is an average. The 500 were killed last month. The SLA attacks increased significantly following the 59 Division's induction. If you want me t tell you what you want to hear, forget it!

goldeneagle,
It depends. If its LRRP, then they don't. Should SF wear body armour? there's a thing they have called 'confidence'. That's why they would wear a bandana than a helmet, for example. They are confident of not getting hit due to superior training and confidence. Unfortunately this is always not the case.

Sandun Dasanayake said...

U.N. Human Rights Chief Louise Arbour Tells Staff She is Leaving

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, under fire from the United States and several developing countries, told her staff on Wednesday she would leave at the end of June.

Full Story - Reuters

Unknown said...

Wow, finaly some figures...

Are we on track to finish off the LTTE in 7 Months plan from Sarath?

or was that a joke?

"The SLA attacks increased significantly following the 59 Division's induction"

is this a joke too?

Raptor said...

OK I am sorry but I have to say something about the bandana comment.

Its is plainly stupid to assume that someone is going to wear a bandana into war just because they are confident. That has to be one of the most stupid statements ever.

The reason they probably do not wear helmets, is because it gives them much greater ease of movement. Special forces generally travel light, as they rely on speed and stealth, unless they are deep penetration units.

US Delta force soldiers in Somalia wore plastic hockey helemts because they were more comfortable in intense heat, and were lighter. Consequently a higher number died/were injured when taking fire or shrapnel to their heads. If they were wearing normal helemets they would have stood a better chance of surviving.

Personally I dont think SL special forces wear bandana's into battle, I think thats just for the camera's. I know for a fact that the commando regiment does'nt, I cant comment on other regiments.

tikira said...

may all the brave souls rest in peace,hats off to the brave men.
appreciate that we release the figures of casualty,nothing to hde,nothing should be hidden, thats the only way we can respect the fallen.

Sun Tzu's disciple said...

raptor,
I glean from DWs posting that they are from a Defence background so they usu know what they are talking about.
I think SFs everywhere often sacrifice clunky equipment for reasons you have given, and also as an assertion of their confident and devil-may-care attitude, so both of you are correct.
***

The casualty fig for SLDF seem correct from one perspective at least--it adheres to the kill:wound ratio expected in conventional battle.The fig for LTTE appear too high ,again using same formula, given the estimated low ltte numbers.

thiru said...

you guys keep sayin that the GOSL kills atleast 500 tigers a month and yet claim that there are only around 7000 tigers, boy i never knew the singhalese can be this dumb!

MangoLiving said...

Go to
http://neue-gedanken.blogspot.com

it's a different dimension..

(Hope u don't mind DW)

SnakeVI said...

Raptor,

I don't know about how well i can generalize my comments to all SF soldiers, but I can tell you that the half a dozen SF guys I knew are pretty intense. It wouldn't surprise me AT ALL if they wore a bandanna cuz they were confident.
these guys are pretty hectic. the way they talk about battle is very different from the regular armed forces (in my experiences).

Calvin said...

Ooooooo so you talking ass holes are a too smart, thats why you mf left the country and living by cleaning others asses and washing toilets and pumping petrol, must be having double degrees. my foot I say, if you too fking smart give a correct calculation and show that funny part of the article?
I must say all the juntas appeared suddenly to comment against the article, but no solid argument. Only showing mathematical errors and grammar errors but no effective discussion. Holly morons, you must understand the reality. If you lost your big junta, that will be the end of every thing. And we’ll have roasted pork. Count the days instead of counting the numbers…!

SnakeVI said...

Calvin,

"Count the days instead of counting the numbers…!"
well said bro! lol....

CodeRed said...

Thiru,
Yup it is true that SLAF eliminates 500 LTTE Carders Every month. But why no: of LTTE heads remains on 7000? Simply because of forceful requirements that LTTE is executing. Currently only for children. But after them it would be older people recruited by them. Even after finishes that.... LTTE will recalling their passed away members from hell.HA HA HA.........

Anonymous said...

Defencenet,

When you have time can you please consider comment/article on;

1) Magnetic bombs
- How dangerous they are, will it destroy the whole vehicle on which it is attached to? or Do they destroy surounding area too? If so, how much? Is it expleded by remote or timing or both? It is likely such a bomb to be fixed under surface of a vehicle. How likely an owner find out it if such a bomb was fixed to his vehicle?

2) How likely LTTE-black tigers attack SLA base in south? - A training camp like Diyathalava/ police station/ STF camp etc?

3) Recovery of toys from a bunker
-Many guess a family was living in the bunker.

Thanks in advance.

Sun Tzu's disciple said...

calvin,

e.g. the dead : wounded soldiers ratio for US Servicemen in Vietnam was 1:8 ;It has come down to 1:4 in Iraq due to better armor and quick effective medical care.

Since SL civil war is fought with technology and tactics more similar to Vietnam than Iraq, the 1:8 figure may be more accurate(i.e. 104:822). If anything, given the resources available to SLDF vs USA, I expect more deaths of the SLDF wounded in the later recovery period which may not show up in initial count.
The situation would be worse for LTTE of course.

Sun Tzu's disciple said...

sorry the kill:wounded ratio in above posting inadvertantly reversed.

US had 1 dead : 1 wounded in Civil War 1862,1:3 wounded WWII, 1:4 Vietnam and 1:7-8 Iraq II.


Even supposing Ltte has 100% more death rates than SLDF(i.e.LTTE 1:4 versus 1:8 of SLDF)
the no. of LTTE wounded would come to 500x4=2000 for Feb alone(DW fig) ;and 871x4=3500 for feb and 1837x4=7350 LTTE wounded for 2008 alone(MoD figures)!!
If we suppose their dead:wound rate is same as SLDF then 1837x8=14700 wounded!

I hope I am not flamed for using sound logic, again. I am not trying to prove or disprove anybody here.

Calvin said...

Sun Tzu's disciple,

Thats better and constructive…!
But 822 casualty figure also includes cuts and bruises I guess. So this 800 soldiers not totally away from the battle field, and they are back in front now. Part of the soldiers are in hospitals which they cannot come back (my humble feelings for them).
I can’t agree one more thing. Tactics, Technology and terrain could be similar to Vietnam, but this is far more experienced and different warfare. Since medical facilities and experience of the past, there are lot more soldiers save their lives. So this ratio you came up with isn’t totally tally with current situation.

Calvin said...

Now you are too much in ratios. Its not mathematics we are doing here. It’s a war. Too much of every thing is way too much. So enough calculations, and get back to reality.

Usual casualty figures are calculated after collecting facts. Then make a ratio to understand the situation. But we usually don’t use that ratio to predict our future causalities. War and its damage cannot be predicted by in any means.

Sun Tzu's disciple said...

calvin,
thanks for engaging in a civil manner. You are right, we are dealing with thinking humans not numbers. But keeping an eye on the numbers would do no harm too.

Defencewire said...

raptor,
The bandana and the face paint is the usual SF battle order. They would not risk getting hit on the head, hence do not believe in wearing helmets. So overtime, by eliminating the possibility through sheer skill to avoid a bullet to the head, the SF become more confident.

Actually, if you have worn the helmet and the bandana you will see that in thick bush, bandana can get caught-up in shrub, whereas the helmets don't. But the bandana serves other purposes like a cloth that you use to cover a cooking pot etc.

The weight of a helmet is not much of a consideration to these guys who are trained, from inception, to carry heavy loads. In either case, weapons dumps placed deep inside LTTe areas can be used to hide helmets if they are too heavy to carry.

If you ask SF officers or any experienced CO they will tell you how useless a helmet is when it is hit by an AK-47/T-56 munition. There is simply no 'bullet proof' equipment against a rifle bullet. Believe me!

So the next best option, or actually the best option of all, is to prevent getting hit on the head!

thiru,
"you guys keep sayin that the GOSL kills atleast 500 tigers a month and yet claim that there are only around 7000 tigers, boy i never knew the singhalese can be this dumb!"

We would like to answer the statement of yours that we claimed only 7000 cadres in LTTE. We get it you are new to this blog. Our estimated LTTE figured were over 10,000 hardcore with 25-40,000 soft-core. Please read our previous article on LTTE organizational sturcture titles "An (Im)balance of power". Thank you!

Ninja,
Magnetic mines were used twice to my knowledge by LTTE. Once in sea, which plan got washed up after the frogmen were detcted by civilians and apprehended. The next was on an EPDP member's vehicle, which injured him.

The first attempt was to fix home-made limpet mines (magnetic sea mines)onto the hull of a moving ship using frogmen. This is a tough job to do as a ship, though slow moving to the naked eye, actually creates numerous ripple-effects and currents throughout its body, making it difficult for a frogman to get close enough. The other attach indicates the debilitating effect of such mines due to the use of basic plastic explosives like C4, RDX etc. The problem arises in the power of the magnet in attaching large quantities of explosives to a moving vehicle. Unless the explosives are more efficient than what is used, it becomes a daunting talk to fix large quantities of C4 etc to a metal body using magnets.

about the toys,
I wouldn't read much into that. We found many LTTE female cadres having teddy bears given to children after Tsunami. Women are like that for unknown reasons.

attack on Diyatalawa,
That's a possibility, but to achieve what? unless as an act of desperation. They could attack the base if there was some important function targeting a key official for example. Unlike A'pura, SLMA does not have any significant military assets worthwhile destroying.

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