Biggest Hostage Rescue Operation Successful: 35,000 confirmed escaped on the first day : 65,000+ in 2 days
20th April 2009
The LTTE had been deceived into thinking that the armed forces will launch a full fledged operation in the Mullivaaikkaal area adjacent to the Nandhikadal lagoon.
The Paranthan-Mullaitheevu road known as the A-35 highway proceeds south through Puthukkudiyiruppu and then veers east near the lagoon and again turns south to reach Mullaitheevu via the Vattavaagal bridge.
The 53 division under Gen. Kamal Gunaratne and Task Force 8 led by Col. GW Ravipriya were placed north and west of Nanthikadal. A joint operation in two stages was conducted before and after the April new year to take the small stretch of A-35 near the Irattaivaaikkaal junction.
There are two roads at this point leading to Karaiyamullivaaikkaal and Vellamullivaaikkaal.The 53 and TF 8 broke through the Bund Trench constructed across the A-35 and advanced close to the junction.
Further progress in this direction would have resulted in the army interdicting the littoral strip into two thus dividing the population here in two segments.
The LTTE expected a third stage of this particular military push and tiger cadres had constructed another bund and were awaiting the Army. The commander of Imran-Pandiyan regiment Col Velavan was in charge here with the bulk of remaining cadres.
On the 19th night the armed forces had conducted an artillery barrage in this area thereby making the tigers think that another offensive was about to be launched.
But in a surprise move some soldiers of the 58 division along with commando and special forces had struck at 2 am in the northern part of the Karaithuraipatru AGA division.
The 11th SL Light infantry, 9th Gemunu Watch, 9th Gajaba along with battalions from Special Forces one and Two Commando regiments stormed and broke through the 2-3 km long Bund cum Trench constructed in the Puthumaathalan-Ambalavanpokkanai area.
The Bund was 8 ft in height while the trench was 10 ft in depth.
The 11th SLLI, 9GW, GR, SF 1 and 2CR are commanded by Colonels , Kithsiri Ekanayake, Lal Chandrasiri,Chandana Wickremasinghe, Athula Kodippili and Ralph Nugera respectively.
After some tiger resistance in which around 12 soldiers were killed and scores wounded the Army succeeded in breaching the LTTE defences in the Pokkanai area.
Once this breakthrough was effected the soldiers moved into tiger territory and began spreading out.They also moved right down to the coast , established a beachhead and bisected the tiger controlled littoral in two.
Thereafter announcements were made asking the people to move out so that they could be rescued and evacuated. What began as a trickle soon turned into a flood.
Thousands of civilians long held in bondage by the LTTE began rushing to breathe the air of freedom. The LTTE got alarmed and tried to block the people.
According to security sources the tigers fired upon the people trying to escape. Still the people kept on moving. When columns of civilians were walking on a causeway tigers began firing intensely.
The people then got down into the water and started wading. At this juncture three woman suicide bombers ran towards them and exploded themselves. Many civilians were killed and injured.
There was terrified pandemonium but soon the people rallied and began running towards the 58 division soldiers . Some did so in neck deep water.
Meanwhile the 55 division stationed at Challai also moved some distance to the South near Pattiaddy. Thousands of people from Palammaathalan began moving in large numbers through swampy land to reach the 55 division soldiers.
There were only a few LTTE sentries here and they could not prevent the large crowd exceeding 5000 from going towards the Army.
In another development 24 people from six families walked through the Nandikkadal lagoon and surrendered to the 53 division.
In a separate development thousands of civilians used the disorientation within tiger ranks due to the fighting and attempted to escape by sea. More than 2000 people in 92 boats sailed out from Valainjarmadam
When the sea tigers gave chase the Navy got into action and provided protection to the fleeing boats. The people were escorted safely by the navy to Point Pedro and Pulmoddai.
Visuals of the events provided by the Defence ministry and state television lend much credence to the Govt version of what happened.
The sight of tiger sentries trying to prevent large numbers of people from moving and the sight of streaming civilians braving much hardship to reach safety conveyed the real picture to most viewers. It was indeed a harsh indictment of the LTTE.
--------------
Link to the youtube video"Escaping civilians from the NFZ" - youtube.com/watch?v=NkOWdjyQiE8
Link to the vedio showing "how the LTTE is keeping the civilians at gun point" - defence.lk/videos/Civilians20090420.wmv
(add www at the front of each link pls)
-----------------
Update : How the Arti launching Pad was taken out
The details of yesterday's operation are coming to light. 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.
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.
source: defencewire.blogspot.com, dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/365#comments
20th April 2009
The LTTE had been deceived into thinking that the armed forces will launch a full fledged operation in the Mullivaaikkaal area adjacent to the Nandhikadal lagoon.
The Paranthan-Mullaitheevu road known as the A-35 highway proceeds south through Puthukkudiyiruppu and then veers east near the lagoon and again turns south to reach Mullaitheevu via the Vattavaagal bridge.
The 53 division under Gen. Kamal Gunaratne and Task Force 8 led by Col. GW Ravipriya were placed north and west of Nanthikadal. A joint operation in two stages was conducted before and after the April new year to take the small stretch of A-35 near the Irattaivaaikkaal junction.
There are two roads at this point leading to Karaiyamullivaaikkaal and Vellamullivaaikkaal.The 53 and TF 8 broke through the Bund Trench constructed across the A-35 and advanced close to the junction.
Further progress in this direction would have resulted in the army interdicting the littoral strip into two thus dividing the population here in two segments.
The LTTE expected a third stage of this particular military push and tiger cadres had constructed another bund and were awaiting the Army. The commander of Imran-Pandiyan regiment Col Velavan was in charge here with the bulk of remaining cadres.
On the 19th night the armed forces had conducted an artillery barrage in this area thereby making the tigers think that another offensive was about to be launched.
But in a surprise move some soldiers of the 58 division along with commando and special forces had struck at 2 am in the northern part of the Karaithuraipatru AGA division.
The 11th SL Light infantry, 9th Gemunu Watch, 9th Gajaba along with battalions from Special Forces one and Two Commando regiments stormed and broke through the 2-3 km long Bund cum Trench constructed in the Puthumaathalan-Ambalavanpokkanai area.
The Bund was 8 ft in height while the trench was 10 ft in depth.
The 11th SLLI, 9GW, GR, SF 1 and 2CR are commanded by Colonels , Kithsiri Ekanayake, Lal Chandrasiri,Chandana Wickremasinghe, Athula Kodippili and Ralph Nugera respectively.
After some tiger resistance in which around 12 soldiers were killed and scores wounded the Army succeeded in breaching the LTTE defences in the Pokkanai area.
Once this breakthrough was effected the soldiers moved into tiger territory and began spreading out.They also moved right down to the coast , established a beachhead and bisected the tiger controlled littoral in two.
Thereafter announcements were made asking the people to move out so that they could be rescued and evacuated. What began as a trickle soon turned into a flood.
Thousands of civilians long held in bondage by the LTTE began rushing to breathe the air of freedom. The LTTE got alarmed and tried to block the people.
According to security sources the tigers fired upon the people trying to escape. Still the people kept on moving. When columns of civilians were walking on a causeway tigers began firing intensely.
The people then got down into the water and started wading. At this juncture three woman suicide bombers ran towards them and exploded themselves. Many civilians were killed and injured.
There was terrified pandemonium but soon the people rallied and began running towards the 58 division soldiers . Some did so in neck deep water.
Meanwhile the 55 division stationed at Challai also moved some distance to the South near Pattiaddy. Thousands of people from Palammaathalan began moving in large numbers through swampy land to reach the 55 division soldiers.
There were only a few LTTE sentries here and they could not prevent the large crowd exceeding 5000 from going towards the Army.
In another development 24 people from six families walked through the Nandikkadal lagoon and surrendered to the 53 division.
In a separate development thousands of civilians used the disorientation within tiger ranks due to the fighting and attempted to escape by sea. More than 2000 people in 92 boats sailed out from Valainjarmadam
When the sea tigers gave chase the Navy got into action and provided protection to the fleeing boats. The people were escorted safely by the navy to Point Pedro and Pulmoddai.
Visuals of the events provided by the Defence ministry and state television lend much credence to the Govt version of what happened.
The sight of tiger sentries trying to prevent large numbers of people from moving and the sight of streaming civilians braving much hardship to reach safety conveyed the real picture to most viewers. It was indeed a harsh indictment of the LTTE.
--------------
Link to the youtube video"Escaping civilians from the NFZ" - youtube.com/watch?v=NkOWdjyQiE8
Link to the vedio showing "how the LTTE is keeping the civilians at gun point" - defence.lk/videos/Civilians20090420.wmv
(add www at the front of each link pls)
-----------------
Update : How the Arti launching Pad was taken out
The details of yesterday's operation are coming to light. 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.
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.
source: defencewire.blogspot.com, dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/365#comments
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