Following the Sri Lankan government’s announcement of the ‘liberation’ of the east from the LTTE, the military activity and violence have intensified in the north.
The Sri Lankan military stepped up its operations, with direct offensives and Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) missions into LTTE controlled territory along the Mannar-Vavuniya border.
Attacks against the Sri Lankan forces also intensified, with over 30 Sri Lankan soldiers killed in fighting and ambushes in the last two weeks alone.
On July 24, a bus transporting military personnel from Mannar to Mathavachi was ambushed by attackers who triggered a claymore mine, killing at least 10 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on the spot and wounding more than 8 soldiers.
On the same day four home-guards were killed in a pre-dawn attack by the LTTE on a security post in Aluthgama, Vavuniya.
Three days earlier two SLA troopers on road patrol were seriously injured when attackers triggered a claymore mine on the Vavuniya-Mannar Road.
And on July 20, the LTTE launched a pre-dawn raid on a SLA mini-camp near Uyilangkulam entry/exit point in Mannar, killing 10 soldiers and seizing all the weapons from the camp.
The LTTE seized military hardware including a Medium Machine Gun (MMG), a Light Machine Gun (LMG), a 60 mm mortar, four automatic rifles, 25 hand grenades and an ammunition cache.
The LTTE fighters returned to their positions after “succesfully neutralizing the threat posed by the hostile enemy camp from which infiltration units were operating,” LTTE military spokesman Rasaiah Ilanthiryan said commenting on the mission.
Earlier this year the Sri Lankan military made public its intention of capturing the Northern LTTE stronghold of Vanni.
“After eradicating the Tigers from the East, [the military’s] full strength will be used to rescue the North,” SLA Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseaka declared at the time.
Before and after the public declaration by Gen. Fonseka, the Sri Lankan military made several intermittent attempts to breakthrough the LTTE Forward Defence Lines (FDL) and into Vanni.
Initially the SLA attempted to enter Vanni by breaching the LTTE FDL in Jaffna. As part of this plan the military carried out two massive onslaughts on the LTTE defence positions in Jaffna last year.
In the first offensive, on September 9, hundreds of SLA troops launched an offensive from three locations along the front lines against the LTTE territory in the northern Jaffna peninsula. On the ensuing battle at least 25 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and around 125 wounded.
In the second offensive on October 11, SLA troopers launched a large scale ground troop-movement into LTTE administered territory with heavy artillery and MBRL rocket fire.
SLA troopers who broke through the LTTE FDL positions in Kilali and Muhamalai were defeated, leaving around 75 dead bodies of Sri Lankan soldiers inside the LTTE territory in Kilali. Three tanks were damaged and one destroyed.
SLA sources in Colombo confirmed that more than 300 troopers were wounded in the offensive.
Following the heavy defeats in the Jaffna offensives, this year the military shifted its focus onto the Southern Vanni FDL that run along the Vavuniya-Mannar road.
In past three months the SLA has tried number of times to enter LTTE controlled territory in Mannar and Vavuniya regions with no success.
In the latest of a series of attempts by the Sri Lankan forces to capture LTTE administered areas in Vanni, a team of the SLA Special Forces attempted to breach into LTTE territory in Palamoddai on the Mannar-Vavuniya border on July 16.
LTTE forces retaliated by killing four and wounding 6 troopers and recovering 3 T-56 rifles, explosives and military hardware including night-vision equipment.
The operation came to an end with the SLA withdrawing the Special Forces team, which had sustained heavy casualties, back to its original positions.
The SLA first launched an offensive to into Vanni on March 16 with the aim of capturing Palamoddai, northwest of Vavuniya but retreated following 3 hours of heavy fighting.
On March 23 the army tried to advance into LTTE territory using 120 villagers as human shields, but in 15 hours of fierce fighting the LTTE rescued the hostages and pushed the troops back to their original positions in Thampanai and Chinna Pandivirichan. The army lost 60 soldiers in this operation.
Two weeks later on April 11 another attempt by the army to move towards Palamoddai was thwarted by the LTTE forces.
On March 23 the army tried to advance into LTTE territory using 120 villagers as human shields, but in 15 hours of fierce fighting the LTTE rescued the hostages and pushed the troops back to their original positions in Thampanai and Chinna Pandivirichan. The army lost 60 soldiers in this operation.
Two weeks later on April 11 another attempt by the army to move towards Palamoddai was thwarted by the LTTE forces.
Retreating SLA troopers left behind their dead soldiers, arms and ammunition, including a Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher and 15 automatic guns.
Following the fighting LTTE forces clearing the area located eight bodies of SLA troopers which were later handed over to the ICRC.
Again on April 25, the LTTE repulsed another ground offensive by the SLA at Parisankulam inside LTTE administered Madu division in Mannar. More than 10 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and around 50 sustained injuries, Ilanthirayan told reporters afterwards.
SLA troopers who moved from Iranai Iluppaikkulam camp were locked in a five-hour jungle clash where Tigers engaged sniper units inflicting casualties on the SLA troopers, Ilanthirayan added.
Since then a number of SLA pushes into LTTE-held areas of Mannar district, including the Madu region, have failed.
Following the failed attempts the frustrated military had resorted to indiscriminate artillery barrage on civilian targets.
On July 15 the SLA launched sustained rocket fire on Puliyangkulam hospital, severely damaging the hospital buildings and completely destroying the electricity generator and the transformer located in the hospital.
Patients and staff of Puliyangkulam hospital in LTTE held area in Vavuniya fled to save their lives, press reports said.
The next day the SLA resumed its heavy artillery and rocket fire targeting civilian villages of Puliyangkulam, Palamoddai, Kunchukulam, and Navi in LTTE administered Vanni.
A fortnight ago, whilst the Sri Lankan administration celebrated the capture of Thoppigala, a hat shaped hill in the middle of the Vadamunai region in Batticaloa and surrounded by large swathes of forest, with a ceremonies across the Sinhala south, the Sri Lankan military directed artillery fire at the only civilian entry point to Vanni at Pulyangkulam, destroying it.
