Sri Lanka news columns

LTTE target Indian radar system Security forces down LTTE aircraft Special Correspondent Vavuniya town, which had been in peaceful slumber, was suddenly jolted awake by a barrage of gunfire around 2.50 in the morning on September 9. The gunfire came from the direction of the Wanni Security Forces Headquarters in Lavonia and the Air force base. As time went by, the sound of loud explosions also shook the town. The LTTE light aircraft, which had last carried out a bombing raid on the Eastern Naval Headquarters in Trincomalee on August 26, also became airborne during this battle in Vavuniya. The eastern boundary of the Wanni Security Forces Headquarters in Vavuniya ends in dense jungle close to a few Tamil villages. The Black Tiger suicide cadres had gained entry to the Wanni Security Forces Headquarters by cutting through the barbed wire fence at the end of this boundary. This group was first spotted by a soldier from the Special Forces. He grew suspicious of a Black Tiger cadr...

එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ. සංවිධානය දශක දෙකහමාරක් මුළුල්ලේ දේශීය වශයෙන් හා අන්තර්ජාතික වශයෙන් ඔවුන්ගේ බලය මහත්කොට පෙන්නමින් පුරසාරම් දෙඩුවේය. එහෙත් වසර දෙකක් ඇතුළත ඔවුන්ගේ ඊනියා බලය පුස්සක් බව පෙන්වීමට ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා රජය හා ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදා සමත් විය. දැන් ඔවුන්ගේ බලය කිලිනොච්චි හා මුලතිව් දිස්ති‍්‍රක්ක වලට පමණක් සීමාවී තිබේ. මෙවන් අවස්ථාවලදී ඔවුන් කරන්නේ තමන්ට තවමත් මහා බලයක් ඇති බව පෙන්වීමට කුමක් හෝ හරඹයක් පෑමයි. එසේ හරඹ පාන්නට ඔවුන් හය වතාවක්ම සිය සැහැල්ලු යානා උපයෝගී කරගත්හ. හත්වෙනිවතාවටත් එසේ ගුවන් සරඹ පාන්නට ආ සැහැල්ලු ගුවන්යානා දෙකෙන් එකක් ගුවන් හමුදා ප‍්‍රහාරක ජෙට් යානා මගින් මුලතිව් වනාන්තරයට හෙළන ලදී. මෙය ශී‍්‍ර ලංකා ගුවන් හමුදා ඉතිහාසයේ ඓතිහාසික දිනකි. පසුගිය අහරුවාදාට එළඹෙද්දී කිසිදු හමුදා බුද්ධි අංශයකට හෙළි නොවූ එක් දෙයක් වවුනියාවේ වන්නි බලසේනා මූලස්ථානයේ හෙවත් ගුවන් හා යුද හමුදා සංකීර්ණයේ පිටතින් සිදුවෙමින් පැවතිණ. ඒ මරාගෙන මැරෙන කළු කොටි එකොළොස් දෙනකු ආයුධ බෝම්බ හා පුපුරන ද්‍රව්‍යයන්ගෙන් සන්නද්ධ අන්ධකාරයේ ම හමුදා සංකීර්ණ වෙත ළංවීමයි. ඒ කළුකොටි එකොළොස් දෙනා අතර කාන්තාවන් පස්දෙනෙක් ද වූහ. මේ ව...

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA The final blow on the LTTE is now on, with the troops gradually overcoming all the obstacles ahead of them in the outskirts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in the aftermath of the LTTE’s desperate attempts at changing the military balance with their attack on the SLAF base in Vavuniya last Tuesday. LTTE faced a severe blow in their latest attempt to infiltrate into the Vavuniya Sri Lanka Air Force Base targeting the vital radar system there while firing large number of artillery rounds into Wanni Security Forces Headquarters and inducting their Black Tiger cadres through a ground infiltration. Pic: Rukmal Gamage The LTTE is now keeping a dead silence over the incident as all their attempts were foiled by the Security Forces after shooting down one of their light aircraft in the West of Mullaitivu. Despite their claim that their light aircraft returned safely, the LTTE keeps mum over th...

* Rapid counter-action by Special Forces minimise damage * Lack of security at key base enables besieged guerrillas to hit back By Iqbal Athas Barely two weeks after their foray into Eastern Naval Area Headquarters in Trincomalee, Air Tigers showed up again. This time they were an integral part of a pre-dawn Tiger guerrilla ground and artillery assault last Tuesday on the sprawling Security Forces Headquarters - Wanni (SFHQ - W) complex located in Vavuniya. The defining moments of the attack on this garrison, the northernmost under Government control in mainland Sri Lanka, came thrice in regular intervals of six to seven minutes. First, a group of guerrillas infiltrated the area near the Air Force radar unit to spark off a ground battle. Then artillery and mortar shells began to rain. Thereafter, two Czech-built Zlin Z-143 aircraft appeared over the skies to drop bombs. One of the buildings inside the Security Forces Headquarters – Wanni (SFHQ-W) at Vavuniya damaged by last Tuesd...

The final battle in the Wanni has come to a decisive point. It has been proved beyond doubt with successive desperate attempts by the LTTE to change the balance of power between the Security Forces and the LTTE at this decisive point with their attempts to infiltrate the highly defended Sri Lanka Air Force base in Vavuniya where the SLAF has vital radar equipment to monitor the air movements of the LTTE. It was around 3 a.m. when the Security Forces Headquarters in Wanni was alerted with an unexpected fall of artillery round onto an open space outside the military and Police complex. The surprising artillery round that fell into the SFHQ area put the entire military complex on alert. Rounds of artillery continued to fall to the SFHQ whilst the instructions were disseminating for those who were inside the military complex to move into bunkers as it was under artillery fire. Amidst the artillery rounds falling into various places inside and ...

Army repulses major Tiger attack on military complex According to intercepted LTTE ground information, the two pilots of the LTTE air craft had continued to communicate with each other on their way back to Kilinochchi. But suddenly, one of the Tiger aircraft had lost contact with the other. Soon one of LTTE pilots had informed the LTTE in Kilinochchi, about losing communication with the other. The night was darker and cooler than it was the previous days, and the Sri Lankan Army’s elite force -- the Special Forces-- members were on duty at the Security Forces Headquarters Vavuniya and the adjoining Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) base which was equipped with the Indian made radar system named Indra-2 . The SLAF base and the Vavuniya SF Headquarters are situated side by side and are divided by only a fence and a road that is not opened to the public. Bordering the south of the two bases is the jungle that leads to the Irattaperiyakulam area. The SF personnel suddenly detected a movement ...

It was 10 p.m. on Tuesday and doctors at Apollo hospital had just removed shrapnel from Chintamani Rout’s thigh. For a wounded man caught in the middle of fierce shelling and artillery fire less than 15 hours ago, Chintamani Rout seemed to be recovering quickly. “This is nothing,” Rout said pointing to his just-operated thigh. “These things happen.” He was one of the two Indian radar technicians injured when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched a simultaneous air and ground attack on the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) base near Vavuniya town in north Sri Lanka early Tuesday. Rout was luckier than his colleague A.K. Thakur, who had to be operated just below his left eye to remove a similar metal piece lodged inside the eye socket. Rout said: “We were resting when the sound of sirens woke us up. I didn’t know the time. There was heavy shelling. We heard bombs exploding.” The attack was launched soon after 3 a.m. and the exchange of fire continued for over three hours. For Rout, ...

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By B. Raman T he Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is increasingly under pressure due to a war of attrition waged against it by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in the areas controlled by it in the Northern Province, launched a surprise land-cum-air attack on a vital military complex of the armed forces at Vavuniya, about 260 kms North of Colombo, in the early hours of September 9,2008. Even after allowing for the usual exaggeration by the spokesmen of the Armed Forces in projecting the progress made by them, it is evident from independent reports that the LTTE has been forced to fight a defensive battle to retain the territory under its control and to prevent a weakening of its conventional capability due to the loss of its weapons holdings during the battle and its inability to replenish them through smuggling from abroad. While the morale of the LTTE's experi...

Air Force claims one Tiger aircraft downed Vavuniya air and ground clashes result in 24 deaths The Air Force claimed it had shot down one of the three LTTE light aircraft over the Mullaitivu area yesterday minutes after the Tigers launched a pre-dawn combined air and ground attack on the Vavuniya Security Forces joint operations complex targeting a key radar tower. More than three hour long confrontation resulted in at least 24 deaths including twelve soldiers, a policeman and a civilian. The military said the 10 LTTE cadres who launched the ground attack on the base were also killed. “We were able to bring down one of the three aircraft of the LTTE, marking a historical day for the air force,” Air Force Spokesman Janaka Nanayakkara told the media. He said the pilots of F-7 fighter jets which took off from the Katunayake military air port confirmed that one of the two rebel light air craft, that took part in the attack on the military base in Vavuniya, was destroyed. “We can confirm...

SLAF says it destroyed Tiger aircraft but heavy damages to personnel and property; 10 suicide cadres killed LTTE claims no damage to aircraft; says 20 soldiers killed in pre-dawn raid Air force says anti-aircraft radars intact Cross fire in P’ment as UNP says dawn attacks casts government claims about rapid northern advance into doubt By Rathindra Kuruwita & Lakna Paranamanna The Sri Lanka Air Force yesterday claimed that it had destroyed the first LTTE aircraft during the Tigers’ pre-dawn attempted air raid on the SLAF Base in Vavuniya last morning. Addressing a press briefing, Air Force officials said that pilots had confirmed the plane had gone down over the jungles of Mullaitivu. Ten LTTE cadres were killed while 11 soldiers died and 15 suffered injuries du...