News has reached us that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has unloaded at least one floating warehouse of arms and especially a large quantity of artillery shells from either Chalai, Mullaithivu or Alampil in the Northeastern coast.
So far, the Tigers have launched two heavy artillery barrages at Weli Oya. Described in military terms as a harassing fire, the barrages came after a long lull where only a few intermittent shells were fired by the Tigers until a few days ago. Intelligence sources have indicated the Tigers had run out of their stocks while others have been destroyed in air force raids.
SLA artillery captured by LTTE after Mullaithivu battle on 18th July 1996However, the recent artillery engagements in the Weli Oya sector clearly indicates that it has obtained fresh stocks from the Northeastern coast. The LTTE's reinforcement capability at sea and on land is the highest in this area.
The Sri Lanka Navy does not patrol these waters aggressively enough since large swarms of LTTE suicide boats constant act as a deterrence in these seas. In a recent attack, the SLN lost an Ultra Fast Attack Craft in seas off Nayaru and Kokilai on 22nd March 2008 at around 2.30am.
Highly confidential sources told DefenceWire that the UFAC regularly docks at this location, which others claimed the explosion occurred while it was on the move. In any event, it is now believed that 3 Black Tiger suicide bombers may have rammed a human torpedo into the hull of the boat. 10 sailors were lost in the attack.
LTTE Torpedo kit with detonation cones
LTTE human torpedoIn a further confirmation of the LTTE's new acquisitions, the Tigers launched a volume of heavy artillery fire from morning till evening at SLA's FDL at Weli Oya today. At least 25 soldiers injured in the attack on the FDL were taken to Anuradhapura Base Hospital.
Shells fell near civilian settlements at Janakapura and Kiriibbanwewa in Weli Oya and Yaya-11 in Padavi Sripura, Trincomalee injuring a civilian (Padavi Sri Pura is the last village and northern most tip of Trincomalee District bordering Mullaithivu District. Adjacent village of Padaviya is located in Anuradhapura District).
Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Army took control of a small LTTE strong point Northeast of Giant's Tank in Mannar strategically located for controlling the general area Veppankulam and Kallikulam. Casualties caused to LTTE is unclear.
27 comments:
Thanks DW for the update
Before jumping to conclusions I think we need to observer a bit more. May be this is just a bluff to ruffle the SLA.
But if it does seem that they have obtained fresh stocks, then a new strategy should be sought.
IF THEY HAVE ACTUALLY OBTAINED FRESH STOCKS OF SHELLS, THAT COULD ALSO MEAN THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE GOT HOLD OF SOME SAMS. SO MI-24 S NEED TO BE A BIT CAREFULL IF ANYTHINGS PLANNED WITH THEM.
I think what we need is many more FACs. According to a recent Defence net estimation we only have 60 FACs. I probably think we at least need 300 of them so that we can have them in clusters of 5.
Also that way we can have a water tight fence around the mullathive coast. I am sure this is going to be lot money. Also I am sure expatriate community wiil contribute to this if govt tell them what they are going to with that money.
why don't slaf use mi24 to hunt ltte artillery? do ltte have lots of manpads? surely helicopter gunships r much better than air strikes with supersonic aircraft when ltte keep moving their artillery pieces on a regular basis.
Does this mean that the Sinhala settlers in Manal-aaru would go back to their home villages?
P.S. I mean the villages to the south of the island, and not Orissa / Bengal.
"why don't slaf use mi24 to hunt ltte artillery?"
Some stats from Eelam War III
19 March 1996: Mi-24 "CH-614" shot down by LTTE SA-7 into the Bay of Bengal
10 November 1997: Mi-24 "CH-619" shot down by FIM-92A
26 June 1998: Mi-24 "CH-620" shot down south of Vavunia,
24 May 2000: Mi-24 shot down by MANPAD over the part of Jaffna Peninsula held by SLA;
24 July 2001: Mi-24 destroyed at Katunayake AB by LTTE
12 September 1997: Mi-24's tail rotor hit by ground fire, helicopter made emergency landing and was later repaired.
17 December 1999: Mi-24 shot down near Parantan, crashing into Jaffna Lagoon
19 October 2000: Mi-24 shot down near Nagar il by AAA, probably ZSU-23-4; reportedly crashed in an area held by SL security forces and
was destroyed on impact.
23 October 2000: Mi-24 shot down by LTTE MANPAD while supporting pursuit of LTTE raiders on Trincomale harbour; wreckage was recovered and the helicopter probably returned to
service.
About the previous article on opinion polls:
There is something called psychological war: you infiltrate these organisations that do the media polls and you doctor the results. If the minorities are told that 70% of them support war against terror according to poll results, it will become unnatural for any Tamil to not to support the war.
It seems LTTE is one step ahead of the GOSL in infiltrating these sensitive polling organisations and are modifying the results to undermine SL and the Army.
"It seems LTTE is one step ahead of the GOSL in infiltrating these sensitive polling organisations"
LTTE appears to be anywhere and everywhere.
Buses, trains, Norway, UN, BBC, IGEP, Moon etc etc..
& the list goes on.
I hear that Mihin Lanka flopped because of LTTE infiltration as well.
Hello Peter pan,
Why no MANPADS hits after 2001?
thats my question. do they still have manpads? i remember they were trying to get some from the US and the FBI caught them.
mboi, Perter Pans knows why. Let's see if he/she can come up with a valid reason.
"Why no MANPADS hits after 2001?"
I think that the previous question, "why don't slaf use mi24 to hunt ltte artillery?", provides the necessary answer.
SA7 has and can bring down MI 24. I think the guys in US were looking for SA18, which is not a MANPAD, for bringing down MIG27. If I remember correctly, back in 2007 DefenceLK claimed to have found an SA10 in Batticaloa.
Peeeeeeeter,I LOVE you
LOOKING 4 U EVERY WHERE
Sam Perera said...
lkhood,
Now you have started recycling news from 2007. Are you trying to get your Google ranks up by repeating others old news.
April 30, 2008 5:10 PM
Blogger Skywalker said...
"LKDOOD said...
Sri Lankan Navy destroys LTTE ship"
Hey bro,
While appreciating your attempt to present news to the bloggers, i want to ask you whats the idea behind putting an old news item here ??
April 30, 2008 6:21 PM
----
OMG !
my bad :(
"Tigers launched a volume of heavy artillery fire from morning till evening at SLA's FDL at Weli Oya today".
it is not at all difficult for the SLAF to target these positions and they enough time to do so.
yea; the navy took a beating recently and no big hunts were reported for a LONG TIME.
Just look at the positives. The more they are engaging artillery, the more chance there is to locate the guns and destroy them.
Its only speculation they have brought in artillery shells. The reason for agitated behavior maybe because the forces are closing in on their Military HQ at Mullativu.
DefWire,
The SCUBA bombing device you have shown is what I suspected as well. I was wondering whether the sonar used to measure depth can be used to detect these contraptions. The sonar bounces radio waves against the sea bed to calculate the depth. What if the sonar was directed horizontally instead of vertically down? The radio waves bouncing off the diver will tell us if there is something coming close to the hull and if it is, how far they are too.
"Highly confidential sources told DefenceWire that the UFAC regularly docks at this location"
Hi DW I don't quite understand this what does docking mean in this respect? Do the FACs just go and anchor at some spot out at sea? or do two or more FAC's meet at such a place?
Thanks.
kDoes the SLA posses artillery detecting radar?
If the LTTE terrorists indeed have obtained fresh artillery stocks the way to go may be night offensives with the air force giving CAS, well equipped with night vision capabilities and FLIR systems. Will this enable the detection of artillery pieces if we force them to fire at night?
Happy May Day !
theres video of those human torpedo things on youtube. along with suicide boats packed with children. there's no point even if a fac is able to detect them. as you can see in the video they are extremely hard to see in choppy seas. once they get close they just try to ram the target. thats why they ltte hav been able to sink a lot of navy vessles. only thing to stop them is to shoot them down. but like i said, they r very hard to spot and get very close very quickly.
LTTE uses commomn sense and change their tactics accordingly. Low tech vs high tech. And we are still bogged down in conventional stuff. Our high hand with Artillery and MBRL is lost now. Our only upperhand is LRRP and Super sonic jets. This status quo is not going to last forever. We need to change our tactics in advance of the enemy. At the moment we are chasing them. Eg. Tin Cans - Multy million jets, but still cannot deliver the goods. Black tiger missions - DPU etc.
We are not innovative. I noticed some bloggers suggested getting help from universities such Moratuwa. Present day youths are well advanced than in our age. They could do wonders but are hampered by lack of funds.
We need something like cash rewards or compettitions for innovations or bright ideas. I am sure they will come up with bright ideas. Military top brass brains are rusted and too conventional.
Before a heavy thrust towrds wanni we need to neutralise the enemy artillery and sqeeeze their supply . Otherwise we will walk in to a trap.
mottapala,
You know what you are all lacking? You are lacking dedication, sacrifice, will and above all love for our traditional homeland. Theses all LTTE has and no matter how much money you give or how well you reward your Sinhala youths, you will LOOSE the war and innocent life’s of your youths.
Tamil Eelam is inevitable.
Mi-24s are still used in all 5 avenues of approaches from Muhamali, Nagarkovil to Mannar, Vavuniya and Weli Oya. The pilots are detailed about MANPADS and are relatively more aware of tactics to avoid them.
The LTTE does not fire any MANPADS now. We do not know whether this is because they do not have them or whether new ones have just arrived and they will soon or whether they have been fired without success against jets and MIs with flares. The one recovered at Thoppigala had been fired but missed. What is remaining is probably with Ratha regiment to protect Prabhakaran/Kilinochchi. These missiles are not as accurate as you think they are. Almost 50% of the MI-24s lost were due to a lack of experience and awareness of MANPADS. Some were downed by technical failures, some by AA fire. 50% or so of those choppers that were lost (due to MANPADS) because of the non-availability of missile countermeasures and poor knowledge among pilots on how to avoid such.
Jack,
UFAC docking. This is controversial for fast patrol crafts are not supposed to anchor outside base. The Army believes it docked but Navy disagrees. How a human torpedo/s hit a fast moving craft is the question, unless it was indeed anchored and anchored regularly and predictably at a particular location for long.
The other point is, Navy says there was no sound or movement before the blast. My mind goes back to a suicide kit at the Trincomalee naval museum of a frog woman, 4 months pregnant who clung to the hull of a gunboat and blasted herself blowing a hole in the hull and sinking it. But a fromgamn cannot get close to a moving UFAC, which is faster than the Dvora FAC. This kind of reinforces the Army's version.
STD,
Its a freeze-frame from an LTTE video. The actual one could be different (please see explanation above)
thambala,
we have fire detecting radar, but not everywhere.
mottapala,
Agree with you.
Is this anyway connected to the 2 tugs that qot washed up at T nadu ?
DW
i've noticed that these patrol vessels tend to take the same route in their patrolling runs... And patrolling speeds are far lower than the operational speeds of these crafts...
maybe for an ltte human torpedo waiting in ambush in this UFAC route...they really don't need to have a lot of speed
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