BREAKING NEWS: Army captures Madhu Church

The Sri Lanka Army captured the Madhu Church at 1pm today. Sources very close to DefenceWire confirmed that the church and the sanctuary around it of four square kilometers is now in Army hands. Palampiddi, another strategic location north of Madhu is expected to fall within the next few days.

Yesterday's battle needs to be corrected in the following way....

Troops from 55 Division advancing from Nagarkovil captured the LTTE's Forward Defence Line and recovered 17 dead bodies of Tigers. The LTTE was in total disarray in this front. However, in the next front at Muhamalai and Kilali, troops from the 53 Division who attempted to charge the LTTE FDL was beaten back heavily in open terrain by long range artillery and mortar fire. Troops who managed to enter the LTTE trenches were killed in booby traps planted by the Tigers.

Although the 55 Division had captured the Tiger FDL, the 53 Division's bungling made it impossible to link the line and troops withdrew after several hours with the dead bodies of Tigers, some of which was handed over to Jaffna police yesterday to be given to ICRC.

The 53 Division, comprising only regular infantry (533/534) also includes the Mechanized Infantry and Air Mobile Brigades. Some sources have claimed 53 Div comprises of Commandos and Special Forces. This is not true. These two specialized Regiments comes under the Army Commander's Reserve since a few years back.

Who did this?

The defeat at Muhamalai yesterday is the 3rd comprehensive defeat in Jaffna in recent times. Two of the three operations were led by Brigadier Samantha Sooriyabandara. Despite yesterday's loss and another loss many months ago where two Main Battle Tanks were lost due to poor leadership, Brigadier Sooriyabandara is to be appointed Defence Attache to the Sri Lanka Embassy in the United States, highly placed sources told DefenceWire.