The Sri Lanka Air Force bombed for the second time an LTTE base at Piramanthan, 15kms northwest of Mulaithivu this morning. The location was an LTTE supply and logistics base assisting Tiger defenses in Nayaru.
A separate base situated meters away from the Piramanthan base was bombed many months ago killing around 15 tigers.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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Guys,
Following comment is from the earlier thread. Since I spent some time researching on it decided to paste it here too.(And thank you, Skywalker).
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The Army commander was talking to the soldiers (for the New Year). This is what the good commander actually said.
"The whole nation value the sacrifices made by SL Army to liberate the Eastern province in the last year.
In this year, our aim should be to liberate the North and free the people living there"
(Go and see the video if you guys don't believe me).
As usual, media bent the story a little bit.
Asian Tribune
“the North will be liberated from the terrorists this year and civilian life established.”
ITN
"Army Chief says North will be liberated from terrorists this year"
So followings are the comments made by you guys.
"SF seem to have pushed the deadline further."
"This year means the year ending with the "new" year that dawned on 13 april 2008. the deadline is 13 april 2009 to be precise."
"No need to split hairs here:)
SF has already put himself in a difficult position by past predictions,some ridiculous;so no need to double guess him here:)"
One can really see the one feather growing in to seven crows. Who is being ridiculous here?
Similar thing happened last year. The Army Chief was giving a speech at a gathering of some soldiers+commanders. He asked their help to finish the LTTE by this August. So later, that became a deadline.
I expected the DPU soldiers to be wearing Gilli clothes, but this doesn't seem to be the case here. Did he have to shed it when he started running?
Another question - does our snipers make their own Gilli clothes for themselves? This must be the best thing to do to cut down on expense and to use local material for a better camouflage.
The pickup by the C130 is crazy, to say the least. This could only be done in open land. The elasticity of the harness and rope probably helps a lot in preventing a very bad jolt!
Hemantha
This is common stratergy. You wait and find some little wording like this. Then come with your own version so that SF can't deny or agree. In either case its bad for him. Expectation is SF will not do it as per your version. You give wide publicity. Later mud slinging comes. Widely used method in politics.
Ninja,
In this case, the pro-government media is as guilty as anybody. Being so stupid, they tried to spin it in their way without understanding the repercussions.
ananda sangaree is appealing to stop night time air raids.
this is something bad from a good politician.
why should the slaf be inactive for one half of the 24 hour day?
i hope the prez will make a rational decision.
when will politicians keep out of operational level military stuff?
Hemantha,
Please try to understand that this is war, and statements made in course of such can't be held as accountable as u imply they should be. After all, please bear in mind that such statements are goals, not promises! Any self respecting person would have a high enough IQ to understand that.
Moreover, there's no need to rant about how the press distorts a quote by someone! That's the press.
Additionally, if I'm to use the same logic and inferences that you apply, it's understandable that the statement in question was not made to the general public, but to his subordinates.
Above all, remember "All's fair in love and war" - if you don't know, THIS IS WAR!
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Hey guys haven't been around for a while just wanted to point out a couple of people are misunderstanding what hemantha is saying. He is saying exactly what some of you have commented, that SF's words should not be taken out of context and twisted. Please read his comments carefuly before slamming the poor guy :)
450 pages ENJOY :)
Defencewire I had a question regarding a previous incident where the CO of 4GW was shot at national front FDL.
You mentioned it was not sniper fire as first suspected, but regular or random fire. My question is this how close are the FDLs then that regular fire can accurately reach a target? AK47/T56 effective range is 300-400 metres right? and unaided shot further than that with such a weapon would be difficult no?
Just curious thanks.
jack
defencewire can clarify but me thinks this might have been a "lucky" shot by a stray bullet...
maybe the ltte gunmen saw the high ranker and took a few shots at him hoping for a hit and they got it...
although armies all over try to dress alike so that seniors don't appear any different to normal men on the battlefield their actions can give their "seniority" away...
just a thought :)
jack,
It can be deliberate firing or "regular fire" or random fire.
Ak-47 has an effective range of around 400m, but its total reach can be 1,000 metres.
terrorists also use other guns; possibly sniper guns.
we regularly (almost daily) kill them along the national front FDL so it can be expected that they also can kill our guys.
Jack,
Thanks my friend. It looks like I have done a poor job.
heirakels,
Please read the comment carefully.
Hemantha and Heirakels
--SarathF comments and media publicity--
Yes it is true there is another side. If SarathF didn't want to give this into media he could do it in that way. I guess SLA need to recruit so they give the impression war will be over soon, so join us. Giving less numbers such as 3000 tigers contrary to MI/DN/DW estimates of 40000 also to convince public was is doable, I guess. GSL media normaly act in a obvious stupid way most of the time. But if SLA need I guess they could advice to GSL media. So GSL media giving publicity should be part of propaganda. Thus this kind of stratergy has both + and - outcomes. When time passed or 3000 tgers killed and still fighting, in either case this will backfire.
Personaly, I don't beleive giving false impression to public. I beleive GSL should say truth to public, even this is hard.
French relief organization pulls out of Sri Lanka
LINK
jack,
This is not a sudden turn of events. You have snipers and even other regulars aiming at the FDL with the hopes of getting an officer, even an Lt. This was a bonus hit, but one that saved Lt. Col Ratnayake.
Some years ago an officer (old boy of Royal College) was shot as he got off from an armoured car. He had just returned from Sandhurst. On another occasion I remember another officer was killed by a sniper, that time, who was aiming at the entrance/exist to the mess door.
The Jaffna FDL gets pretty close at certain points making line instructions dangerous. Tigers and even army bellycrawl towards the others FDL waiting for a chance. This is not so unusual.
And people, please add "Gen." in front of Gen. Sarath Fonseka pls. He's intake 3 and a VERY senior officer in our army!
Def.Wire, my question on Gilli suites goes unanswered, sensitive info? If it is, that is fine.
Usually, a sniper zeros his weapon within 600-800 m range. So this is probably the most effective range for the sniper to get his target. I don't know if the Sri Lankan snipers do the same.
A Canadian soldier in Afganistan is known to have got his target that was 1.5 miles away! Usually the speed of the sniper bullet (hypothetically fired out of an M-24) will be about 1/2 mile per second, and it would have taken about 3 seconds to get to the target. There would also be a fairly large drop of the bullet, and the sniper must have been really smart to compensate for the large drop at such long distances.
I don't think the bata-slipper army have such good snipers (what if a Kadiya bites his toe, or a sarupaya goes up sarong when he is taking the shot?). So if the bata-sniper was close to our officer, the officer would not have had a chance of surviving (given the strength and speed of an M-24 bullet).
A Finish sniper (do you know the name?) killed about 542 soviets in WWII. If we had snipers that are as skilled, it would only take about 5-10 SLA snipers to killed the whole caboodle of LTTers (ha!). By the way, could we also know the max.number of terrorists killed by a single SLA sniper?
DW thanks for the explanation, and my appologies for my part in Shortening Gen. Fonseka's name.
Also thanks Ranil and Moshe for your input.
"A Canadian soldier in Afganistan is known to have got his target that was 1.5 miles away!"
This was not with a M-24, the rifle was a McMillan TAC-50 using .50 caliber BMG bullets. The bullet was estimated to have been in flight for about 4.5 seconds & dropped about 70m. I don't think we have .50 caliber sniper rifles, and also our snipers don't have to shoot such long distances. Because of the terrain, the range would probably be less than 1km.
"A Finish sniper (do you know the name?) killed about 542 soviets in WWII."
Lance Corporal Simo Häyhä was the sniper, and the interesting thing here is he accomplished it with just iron sights - no scope.
Chamal, thanks for the clarifications and the answers to some of the questions I had.
"Lance Corporal Simo Häyhä was the sniper, and the interesting thing here is he accomplished it with just iron sights - no scope."
Yes, this is quite an amazing feat. Now they have digital scopes that calculates the compensation for the drop of the bullet right?
"Because of the terrain, the range would probably be less than 1km.
"
So the Bata-snipers are shooting pretty much in the range that they zero in their guns. Given that the strong bullet of an M-24 can penetrate a 1m thick block of concrete, our officer who recently got shot at would not have had a chance of surviving if he was shot through a sniper rifle.
Hemantha,
Regarding Gen. SF's statement,
"our aim should be to liberate the North and free the people living there"
I quite agree with what you say. The Americans could say "our aim is to pt a man on Mars by 2010". But this does not mean that a man will definitely be put on Mars by 2010.
Anyway, newspapers lap up and misinterpret everything that is being said. This is why gov. issue policy reports from time to time. Gen. SF never said anything about a deadline in one of these reports. As for newspaper reports, it is mostly tripe that is not taken seriously, except by the common masses.
DefenceWire,
Is it true that the army will capture Madhu and Adampan by May Day?
Thanks,
49 killed in fresh clashes in Sri Lanka
LINK
PMK wants India to play 'active' role in Sri Lanka
LINK
Air Force destroyed three LTTE Arms carrying sea tiger crafts - Mullaittivu
LINK
.....Judging by the time taken to almost wrest control of Madhu, given the stiff resistance by the Tigers, the goal of the military to reach Vidatilativu would take another three months or so. Securing Vidatilativu alone may not be sufficient, and the military would have to go the whole hog right up to Pooneryn. To secure the entire western coast right up to Pooneryn which is a good 50 km, it would take an additional nine months to an year.
Meanwhile, four generals are due to retire in the next nine months, starting from Major General Upali Edirisinghe who turns 55 in August this year, two years since the commencement of Eelam War IV. The Army’s No. 2, Commandant of the Volunteer Force, Major General Lawrence Fernando and Jaffna Security Forces Commander, Major General G.A. Chandrasiri will turn 55 in January, 2009, while the No. 3 Chief of Staff, Major General Nissanka Wijesinghe retires in February, next year.
Military Matters by senpathi
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Mmm..
very interesting
There are two different versions of reports abt the three vessels sunk.
One indicates 'armed' as in gun mounted vessels. The other refers to 'gun carrying' as though they were weapons smuggling transport crafts.
Either way it is good news, but which one is it?
DefenceWire,
Can you please shed some light on the NGO involvement it Kili per Divaina? I am not sure why we allow INGOs to get involved in local politics? In
A priest assassinated now.The war is getting dirtier by the day.Is it a tit-4-tat for avenging Fernandopulle(also a Tamil and Catholic) or is it a payback for the Madhu statue episode?
I hope this does not lead to a similar assassination from the other party.The protagonists must draw the line at children, Aid workers,Human Rights workers ,women and religious figures at the minimum.
Once this war ends(either way),some people from both sides are going to land up in the Hague at some point in the future(hopefully) and pay for their deeds.
STD,
You are just parroting LTTE allegations of DPU attack in Kili, aren't you? Given the fact that LTTE has killed thousabds of Tamils for their own advantage, what makes you certain of this allegation? If what you say is correct, what is the value SLA DPU has in spending the resources on a relatively unimportant FR compared to a terror colnel. If you think it is tit-for-tat then this FR is nowhere close to Jeyaraj. To me, your theory is baseless in many ways.
SP,
" You are just parroting LTTE allegations of DPU attack in Kili, aren't you? Given the fact that LTTE has killed thousabds of Tamils for their own advantage, what makes you certain of this allegation? If what you say is correct, what is the value SLA DPU has in spending the resources on a relatively unimportant FR compared to a terror colnel. If you think it is tit-for-tat then this FR is nowhere close to Jeyaraj. To me, your theory is baseless in many ways."
It is obvious to me this act is by LRRP in the same way JPs assassination has the lttes handiwork written all over it.I have evidence for neither; and so do you and everybody else.
You cannot always get a person of similar stature in retributive wars--you settle for a target of oppurtunity.He was chairman of NESOHR--he did tremendous damage to GoSLs reputation in his own way.
And GoSL has also killed tens of thousands of Sinhalese in the past makes it automatically responsible for DM Dassanayakes death by your logic?
If the SLA LRRP can attack within LTTE held territory like the LTTE claims, LTTE would have been defeated long ago. Take a look at tamilnet - DPU kills civilians, DPU kills tna parliamentarian, DPU attacks civilian bus, DPU kills catholic priest....if all these claims were true, LRRP would have been able to kill all the LTTE top brass long ago. I'm not underestimating the LRRP here, but it seems to me that most of these 'allegations' come at times when LTTE is facing some kind of difficulty, and the target is always somebody connected (directly or otherwise) to this situation. Naturally the blame would fall on SLA, as the LTTE seemingly has no intention to do such a thing, but is that always the actual situation?
Who is talking of Tamilnet?
or Defence.lk ,or DW or DN for that matter?
It is the job of each party to present their side as winner and the other side as sinner.And it is the duty of a thinking person to shift through the propaganda of both sides to come to his/her own conclusion(very imp as news from both sides is heavily censored directly & indirectly).
And my conclusion after shifting through the data available(as of now)is given above.It can change if new info is revealed.
AS for ' difficulty' I would say the SLDF is also not in a very comfortable position right now--after raising everyones expectations sky-high for a quick and comphrehensive elimination of the LTTE and then getting bogged down...
Sun Tzu's disciple,
"Who is talking of Tamilnet?
or Defence.lk ,or DW or DN for that matter?"
I am talking of Tamilnet. What's wrong with that?
I don't have a problem with your views & I wasn't challenging them, but you seem to have misinterpreted my comment like that. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I was saying whether we can rely on LTTE's claims. And I'm not denying that the finger points towards LRRP (naturally) but we do not know if that is true.....
We have to wait and see don't we? We have to see if any LRRP team were in the area at least before we hand out judgment.
Oh so sorry Chamal.
I thought you were extending Moshe dayans argument at me:)
See, this man was killed deliberately it is obvious.Only 2 parties are likely--GoSL(LRRP/Proxies) or LTTE.The former seem much more logical to me.
Many may be celebrating the killing privately(going by the massive amount of hate & derision printed in the SL media against the perceived 'pro-ltte' bias of the Catholic church).But the Govt is may pay for it ultimately as International sanctions take time to reach critical mass--and such killings may serve short term gains but long-term loss. Note how the ltte got banned only a couple years back although they were fighting violently from the early eighties.
Correction:
In above post ' Moshe Dayan ' should read as ' Sam Perera' --no offence meant to MD :)
To add a point, I feel in a war-torn area a person must not mix two professions.
e.g. This priest should have been either a practcing priest or a Human Rights activist, not both as it leads to confusion in minds of the opponent as to targeteability/legitimacy/credibility of his professions.As such both professions are fine ones by themselves.
STD,
I don't believe that SLA spends their ultra valuable DPU on a misc. target of opportunity for several obvious reasons. Most important one being not exposing our heroes for useless NEESHOR chair.
As I said earlier, you assume that SLA does thins in tit-for-tat style, which is downright absurd and incorrect. Therefore, the bassis for your argument is WRONG. Please come up with better reasoning to meet your master's standards.
STD,
Anybody can build their own "dream" logics in either way. That doesnt prove anything.
You are simply dragging the SLA into an uncivilized party like LTTE.
What is the importance of risking the lives of highly valued LRRP guys to kill an easy but useless militery target like a priest?What do they or GOSL get by killing this poor fellow?
Then I ask the same for JF , whats the importance to LTTE, and what do they get?
Will any idiot do such a tit-4-tat?
Any sensible person who was living in SL for last couple of years will realize the difference.
Off topic: DW, there have been reports that Tiger aircraft are kept underground in the vicinity of the Iranamadu airstrip. What do we know of such aircraft/have the SLSF been able to wreck any?
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