Madhu sandwichedAll routes leading to Madhu such as the Mannar-Madhu, Uylankulam-Madhu and Thampanai-Madhu roads are under SLA control. The Army officially entered Madhu last week when the 'Madhu Thorana', a welcome sign erected on the Mannar-Madhu road was captured.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that the tigers from Charles Anthony, Ratha and Malathi Regiments have taken GPS coordinates of the church premises when they first entered the premises in full force last Sunday. The parish priests from Thevakutti who were among the last persons to leave the area are inaccessible to troops after they took flight towards LTTE held areas. However, civilians escaping the area have told the Army that the Tigers have booby trapped a campsite for pilgrims next to the small tank at the Madhu Church.
Meanwhile special teams are searching for two persons who entered the Yala jungle 30kms from Ethimale in Monaragala. A witness has claimed he heard shots being fired. It is still not clear whether it was the LTTE or Ganja cultivators or both that were responsible for the disappearance.
17 comments:
LTTE asks Norway to halt Sri Lankan military operation
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DefenceWire,
"Unconfirmed reports indicated that the tigers have taken GPS coordinates of the church premises when they first entered the premises in full force last Sunday."
what is the significance of this? Can't you even get a pretty good long/lat reading off google mpas even? Do you think that they will direct arti/mortar at the church when troops get to the church?
Lkdood,
"LTTE asks Norway to halt Sri Lankan military operation"
Yeah, right after killing JF as well. LTTE is really going to have it in the coming months.
LTTE usually engaged in this practice when they prepare the grids for artillery. The grid (SLA calls it Bim kotu. Example- Bim Kotu 245-326) indicates a specific area in the battlespace. Once you have this in hand, you can safely retreat or allow your enemy to come into this area and then engage them with long-range arti.
Thanks defencewire, I don't think they will attack the church though, they must have done this as psy-ops, to slow down the Army's progress. Also thanks for sharing the army jargon.
"Unconfirmed reports indicated that the tigers have taken GPS coordinates of the church premises when they first entered the premises in full force last Sunday."
saman kumara ramawikrama (SLRC reporter now in mannar) also reported that tigers have taken GPS cordinates of the church premises.
Defencewire,
Army don't have to take the church unless it was adviced from top. Surround the church area. Because there is a very good chance LTTE will direct arty straight into the Church. They have already laid the foundation for the their propaganda work. If Amry troops can take cover with trees in the surrounding area least we will save the lives of our troops. Once we surround the area we can just move on directing our Arty batteries to LTTE positions north of Madu.
Didn't anyone consider the possibility that the GPS coordinates having been taken to AVOID hitting a specific place such as the church?
Obviously the Tigers understand what they stand to lose if they do.
Thanks DW for the map. A map can say a thousand words!
The importance of Adampan is clearly visible from the map. I think it makes little sense in controlling Mannar without Adampan. Also the eastward move to capture Madhu avoiding Adampan can be both advantageous and disadvantageous. We can round up adampan and possibly vedithalathivu than going directly at them. On the other hand LTTE can penetrate SLA columns stretching towards Madhu and trap them.
LTTE is definetely planning an arti. barrage once the SLA comes in. SLAF should be used to destroy these positions. It was only a month ago the barbarians shelled the thalladi church.
"A Commanding officer of the battalion serving the frontlines of Muhamalai in Jaffna was injured in an LTTE sniper attack yesterday morning, the military said."
Anybody knows the name of this commander?
map looks really good :)
Thanks for the map. I would be even more appreciative if DW could use the historically correct Sinhala names in the map instead of taking the Tamil sounds for the words. Sri paada has three names, one in Sinhala, one in English, and one in tamil. These places have two names, tamil and Sinhala (usally the sinhala is the older name, given in the mahavamsa etc). Since both Sinhala and tamil are offical languages, I think we should use the Sinhala names in Sinhala, tamil names in tamil etc.
Thus
Erukkalampiddy හිරිගල්පිටිය
Vidattalitivu අන්දරදූව
Kalliyadi ගල්අඩිය
Illuppaikkadavai මීපාතොට
Mundampiddi තුන්පිටිය
Attimoddai හස්තිමොටේ
and so on.
All the names are given with historical details in
http://www.geocities.com/
place.names
(copy it to your browser window and book mark it)
In particular, we are told in this website (maintained by a number of university Professors) that according to the Mahavamsa, Meepathota (Madhupathetha in Pali, or Illuppaikadaval in tamil) is the harbour used by the Magha-Kaalinga to invade Sri lanka (around 10 Century?). After that the capital went to Pollonnaruva (correct me if I am wrong)
Defence Wire,
Thank you for the updates...
Both 571 & 572 brigades could be seen in the map & the approach from the south of Madhu.Then who operates at Palampiddi? Is it 573 or part of 571? IF so could you pls explain where they started & how they reached there?
Jasaya,
This map is inaccurate. 57-1 is keeping pressure on MADHU from the North i.e PALAMPIDDI. 57-2 is keeping pressure from the South East and South West. 57-3 is keeping pressure from the East. In addition elemets of 58-1 are keeping pressure from the East of Giant's tank, particularly on the route plying from Andankulam junction towards MADHU sanctuary.
Time permitting I will put up a brief on my portal in the coming weeks. But I am afraid by then the entire Madhu area will be in Government control :-)
http://sf-3.blogspot.com/
Hope this helps.
long-ranger,
Thank you for observing the fault in the map. We have rectified it now.
Longranger...
Thank you very much.your comments have certianly helped to clarrify the scenario.
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