LTTE cornered but still covers behind civilians

Following yesterday's daring operation where elite SLA units plunged into the NFZ, the government is now in charge of over 130,000 Tamil civilians held hostage by the LTTE. By the time this report is written, some 50,000 civilians have escaped in less than a 48-hour period.

The Army had previously rescued 70,000 civilians since January 2009. The best estimate is that another 25,000-30,000 civilians are being held hostage by the LTTE, which brings the grand total to 150,000 civilians. The 55 Division alone has received over 11,000 civilians by this evening.

The details of yesterday's operation are coming to light. We will share some of these details with our readers. One magnificent attack was launched by a 12-man team of the Special Forces immediately after the Puthumathalang LTTE bund was breached.

Their objective was to destroy a mortar and artillery launching pad positioned adjacent to a densely populated civilian settlement. This gun position had been a headache to the Army for quite sometime as its WLR systems could not engage the target for concerns of civilian safety.

The LTTE gun operators had detailed coordinates to the earth bund as was obvious in the first 1/2 hour of the operation. Military planners knew that the guns could destroy elite units attacking the earthbund in minutes. So the Special Forces were sent in.

The 12-man team from 1 SF infiltrated the NFZ immediately after the first attack on the bund. Carrying GPS equipment and trained to locate the position based on satellite and UAV images, the unit had no problem locating the guns.

The Tigers manning the position, totally unaware of their fate, had fired only 5 rounds when the SF stormed in. No one and no-thing was spared. The threat to the units attacking and securing the earth bund was completely neutralized.

As predicted by DefenceWire over a week ago, the military planners had in mind to dissect the NFZ, thus securing the release of around 50,000 civilians in one clean swipe and squeezing the LTTE to a narrow corner south of the NFZ. This move had proven to be highly effective and much credit has to go to the Director of Military Planning as well as all ground commanders.

LTTE is now trapped to the south of the NFZ. The 53 Division is also inside the NFZ and Task Force 8 is marching along the A-35 road towards the last remaining corner of the NFZ where the LTTE is hiding behind some 25,000 civilians. This area is called Mullaivaikkal and Vellamullaivaikkal.

TF-8 has to now cross a narrow causeway and is around 500m from this narrow patch, which is the southern edge of the NFZ separated by the Nanthikadal lagoon to the south. Below the lagoon is Mulaitivu Town occupied by the 59 Division. The bridge connecting Mulaitivu south from Mulaitivu north is booby trapped.

The area south of the current position of the 55 Division upto where the NFZ was dissected yesterday will soon be in complete Army control. The civilians who ran towards this area were the lucky ones. But the other remaining 25,000 will also be rescued. The Army expects the entire operation to end in victory by the end of the weekend.