Sri Lankan soldiers captured 4km from Iranamadu on 27th February

Reports of heavy fighting near Iranamadu junction have been confirmed by the Sri Lankan government in their daily defence report for the 27th of February. There is also a POW video showing Sri Lankan soldiers claimed to have been captured at Therumurukandi on February 27th. Therumurukandi junction (marked with a red 'X' on the map) is located 4 km from Iranamadu junction, and just 22 kilometers south of Kilinochi. The area was supposedly captured by the Sri Lankan army on December 11th, 2008 (http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20081211_01), but there have been rumors of heavy fighting in the area as reported in these collumns on 26th February.

The LTTE has refrained from reporting the areas their soldiers are operating in, and as such there has been no word from the LTTE about the heavy fighting in Therumurukandi , nor in Oddusudan. The Sri Lankan military website mentioned the fighting briefly as follows:

"55, 58, 59 Division troops as well as those of the Task Force - III and IV fighting and clearing the general areas of AMPALAWANPOKKANAI, east of PUTHUKKUDIYIRUPPU, CHALAI and THERUMURIKKANDI areas had several rounds of fighting throughout Thursday. Reports said troops inflicted heavy damages on the terrorists at different fronts. A handful of soldiers also sustained injuries during those confrontations."

(from February 27th report at Army.lk)
http://www.army.lk/morenews.php?id=20473

We should note how close Therumurukandi is to the Iranamadu tank bund. It appears if the LTTE wants to burst the Iranamadu tank bund, they are easily within striking distance. Other reports we have received indicate the LTTE is operating in many areas far from the supposed front lines, deep within "government controlled" territory.

Sri Lankan Army still South of A35, not in PTK

It is the fifth day with no real news from the Sri Lankan military about the fighting in PTK. Today they released a statement that they are 200 meters from PTK junction in the far South of the city. Last week they said they had entered the city and captured it (refer the official Sri Lankan news service, News.lk). Today's statement reverses their progress a bit:

"Troops are now reportedly positioned some 200m from the seizing control over the Puthukkudiyirppu junction, ground sources further reported."

Compare that to last weeks statement:

"Armed forces secured Puthukuiyiruppu Town, consolidated their power yesterday. Puthukudiyiruppu, believed to the last LTTE stronghold, surrendered after fierce fighting between armed forces and the LTTE trying to maintain it in desperation, military sources reveal. Soldiers of the 58 Division led by Brig. Shavendra Silva entered the LTTE stronghold causing heavy damages to remaining tiger forces."

Last week they "secured PTK Town", and the LTTE had "surrendered" the city after fierce fighting. After the release of that news, several make believe news sites like Defencewire and others announced PTK was captured, the army was in the center of the city, etc. Today the army is reported to be 200 meters SOUTH of the A-35! That isn't even the beginning of PTK city.

On both the army.lk website and defence.lk website they have articles showing boats they found today, but the photos were taken on the 26th, so apparently nothing new happened in the last 2 days. The only real news today is that the 55th division has entered a death trap.

Sri Lankan army admits to Visuamadu fighting

After 3 days of eerie silence from the Sri Lankan military, today a report on the Army.lk website confirmed the rumors of fighting in Visuamadu area:

"On the other hand terrorists, according to civil information are on the rampage in VISUAMADU area, looting almost everything belonging to civilians as the troops were surrounding the area hour by hour."

There are no further details of the fighting, but rumors have been circulating of heavy fighting in Visuamadu, Oddusudan, and on the A-9 road near Iranamadu. The government had announced that the fall of PTK was imminent and would occur within 48 hours, but that was more than a week ago. Since then the government has been renewing the claim of an imminent fall daily, but no further news has been appearing on their websites. Yesterdays headline on Army.lk is typical of the reports from the last few days: "Claymore & Hand Grenade Collected". Congratulations to the Sri Lankan army for recovering one claymore and a hand grenade yesterday.

Thousands dead in PTK standoff

Reports from the front lines indicate thousands of Sri Lankan army soldiers have been killed in ferocious hand to hand combat as they tried to enter PTK from 5 different sides. Witnesses report seeing 2 main battle tanks deployed by the LTTE to defend the front lines against armor incursions. There are also reports of LTTE fighters infiltrating deep into "government controlled" areas to launch surprise attacks.

Civilians arriving at government controlled IDP camps claim the LTTE still has around 15,000 fighters under their control. Reports indicate as of now forced conscription has not been enforced, though people are being encouraged to join the LTTE to defend their land from the invading Sinhalese army.

Due to limited communications, it is not clear if the LTTE has been pulling out of PTK, or if they plan to stay and defend the city.

The end results of war

What the Sri Lankan government fails to understand is that technology is advancing daily, and it is only a matter of months or years before nuclear devices become available to suppressed people around the world. If the Sri Lankan government chooses not to settle this dispute peacefully they will create hatred amongst the Tamil people , resulting in future rebels, and as technology becomes available it is inevitable that Colombo will face a terrible technological attack one day.

Colombo is located just a few dozen kilometers from Tamil Nadu. It would not be difficult for a terrorist to fly a plane over Colombo and detonate a nuclear device. But this is what the Sri Lankan government is inevitably bringing to their people. By trying to destroy the LTTE, who are actually synonymous with the Tamil people, they are creating hatred amongst the future Tamil generations. As time goes on, and technology advances, the inevitable result will be the first nuclear terrorist attack in the world over Colombo. This is the reasonable projection as you map the future increases of hatred and technological advancement.

Such a terrorist strike does not require an organization or a rebel movement. It simply requires a single person filled with hatred nurtured by suppression and violence perpetrated against an innocent race. This is not a threat or a warning, but a prophecy. Unless the Sri Lankan government negotiates a peaceful conclusion to this war, there will inevitably be a bleak and dark future for the people of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government views Prabhakaran as their greatest enemy, but they don't realize he is actually their greatest friend. It is because of the presence of Prabhakaran that there is order to the chaos in Sri Lanka. He brings complete discipline and one-mindedness to the Tamil fighters, which enables the Sri Lankan government to negotiate with a single entity. Without a central leader the rebel movements will split up, giving freedom to hardliners and fanatics. Even though the government tries to project Prabhakaran as a blood thirsty terrorist, the facts are he has for the most part avoided targeting Sinhalese civilians in the last decade. For example, the LTTE could easily have exploded tank bunds across the country in hundreds of Sinhalese villages resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. The LTTE could easily have targeted unprotected Sinhalese villages throughout the country, but they haven't. The LTTE could have easily targetted commericial international aircraft, but they haven't. In otherwords the LTTE could have actually been the terrorists that the government accuses them of being, but they chose not too because their leader had a different vision.

If the LTTE were to lose that sole leader, it is inevitable that there will be all sorts of splinter groups forming, some of which will be fanatically terroristic and wanting to take revenge against the Sinhalese people. In that situation there will be no one to negotiate with to bring about a peace between the Tamils and Sinhalese. We can see the example of Palestine and Israel. Despite negotiating ceasefires with the supposed "leaders" in palestine, still missiles are fired daily into Israel because there is no absolute leader amongst the palestinian resistance groups. This allows the fanatical elements amongst them to act without any checks or balances. In this context, Prabhakaran is actually the best thing there is for Sri Lanka, because he commands absolutely discipline from his followers and provides a single point of negotiations for the Sri Lankan government with the Tamil people.

Black Air Tigers strike in Colombo

The above photograph was taken just 2 hours before the LTTE black air tigers completed their suicide mission in Colombo. Claims by the Sri Lankan army that the planes were "shot down" are false. This was a planned suicide mission. Both planes were packed with explosives, and their intention was to explode themselves in the Capital. The body of one pilot was recovered by the Sri Lankan military and shown on television wearing a black tigers' uniform.

The above photo also proves that Tamil Eelam national leader, V. Prabhakaran, remains in PTK as of today, directing the defences against the invading Sri Lankan army.

Both black tigers, Col. Rooban and Lt. Col. Siriththiran, had appeared in many photographs with Prabhakaran after successful air raids on Sri Lankan military targets. In the past their faces always remained hidden, and they wore the regular air tigers uniform (which is blue in color). Below are a few of the photographs they appeared in after their successful missions.

Effectiveness of endless artillery bombings

We had touched upon this topic in one of the comments recently, but would like to discuss it here for others to consider. The Sri Lankan military has claimed for the last month that there are only 500 LTTE fighters left in the Vanni. Along with these fighters are around 200,000 Tamil civilians. The ratio of LTTE to civilians would be 0.25% (a quarter of a percent). Thus the number of LTTE fighters killed by the relentless artillerly bombing can be estimated by multiplying the number of civilian casualties by 0.0025. We have estimates that there have been 2,000 civilians killed in artillerly strikes in the last one month. So the number of LTTE fighters killed by these relentless artillerly strikes in the same period is roughly 5 people (2,000 x 0.0025). Think for a minute if this seems to be an acceptable method to fight "terrorists". Do you think it is worth killing 2,000 helpless civilians in exchange for killing 5 LTTE fighters? What this shows is that the nonstop bombing for the last one month has done virtually nothing to the LTTE, but has devastated the civilian population.

For the sake of argument, let us accept everything that the Sri Lankan government says. The LTTE are "terrorists" who have taken 200,000 civilians as hostages to use as human shields. How would civilized countries go about freeing those 200,000 civilians and defeating the 500 terrorists? I don't think there is a single country in the world that would decide to relentlessly bomb the civilian hostages in an attempt that would result in only killing 5 terrorists. Mathematically it is proven that the bombings did nothing to the LTTE. The only victims of the artillerly barrage were the civilians, whom the government was pretending to "save".

The fact that the government was willing to kill 2,000 civilians in exchange for nothing accomplished against the LTTE shows that they want to punish the civilians for having lived in LTTE controlled territory for the last 10 years. If al qaeda terrorists had taken 200,000 hostages in New York, could anyone even dream of the United States resorting to carpet bombing of New York to kill the terrorists? By doing that the terrorists have won, because they made you do their own work. No country in the world would have reacted in the way Sri Lanka has against their own civilians.

If there is any positive side to this terrible massacre it is that the entire world has now been exposed to the genocide committed by the Sri Lankan government. The quiet war that had no witnesses has now been brought before the world and everyone has seen the brutality of the Sinhalese. The Sri Lankan government may think that means nothing, because the international community is weak and spineless. But even the spineless international community has a limit, and as public opinion switches, they also dump the villains they themselves created and then pretend to be the protectors of justice.

What has the Sri Lankan government accomplished by this offensive? On the map it looks great, but for how long? What if they enter PTK and find another ghost town, with no signs of LTTE leaders, LTTE weapons, LTTE vehicles? After using 100,000 soldiers and everything at their disposal they supposedly surrounded the last rebel held area and held them within a 10 kilometer sized square, with absolutely no chance of escape. But when the army finally does enter this tiny parcel of land, what happens if they find nothing, just like the U.S. army found nothing in the Tora Bora caves after months of fighting?

The Sri Lankan army will be stretched throughout the North of the country with more than 100,000 soldiers, but for how long? How long can they maintain such huge numbers of soldiers in the North while simultaneously dealing with guerilla attacks from unknown directions. The Sri Lankan army will have accomplished absolutely nothing by this offensive. On the contrary, they have revealed to the world their genocidal intent, created an entire generation of enemies from amongst the Tamil civilians they bombed, and stretched their military resources beyond their abilities to maintain. Though they may win a battle, they will have lost the war politically, economically and strategically. Time will be their greatest enemy. As the realities of the situation sink in, and the euphoric propaganda presses slowly squeek to a stop, the people in the South will realize that the great "liberating victory" they were promised, that cost 20,000 Sri Lankan soldier's lives, was nothing but propaganda to ensure a win at the elections.

Sri Lanka has now positioned itself in a very vulnerable position. If after entering PTK they find nothing and the war continues, the world will now begin to side against them and their genocidal mayhem. With the economy on the brink of collapse, an over stretched military accomplishing "nothing" is the very last thing they need to keep their country together. The government leaders will insist it was all necessary to "save the country". The killing of thousands of civilians, and displacement of hundreds of thousands was all in the interest of the country, because, after all, they did managed to kill 5 LTTE "terrorists" in the process.

Article removed

The previous article has been removed on request from friends and advisors.

LTTE PoW camp bombed by Sri Lankan airforce

An LTTE prisoner of war camp housing captured Sri Lankan soldiers has been bombed by the Sri Lankan airforce resulting in the deaths of many Sri Lankan soldiers. We have been told that we are not authorized to report on this in detail, but are adding this subject for you to comment if you wish.

40,000 people prepared to die in battle if no ceasefire called

Our reports from the Vanni indicate that tens of thousands of civilian defense force members have been mobilized to defend the Tamil people from the genocidal Sinhalese invasion currently underway. India is quickly looking for a way to diffuse the stand off, not having expected the Tamil civilians to take up arms against the Sri Lankan army. If there is a battle in which 40,000 Tamil civilians die defending their people, the indian government will be held responsible by the citizens of Tamil Nadu.

Though no one can know how this will play out, it looks as though it may come down to a terribly bloody battle in which tens of thousands may die on both sides. Though no teenagers have been conscripted for battle yet, reports indicate they have been given notice that they may be needed in the final battle to protect their people from genocide.

B. Nadesan released a statement to the U.N. today in which he said, "If this brutal war and the war psychosis are allowed to prevail upon the people, there could be a situation tragically forcing everyone in the society to respond in order to save themselves." This was directed towards the U.N. claim that the LTTE had been recruiting children to fight in the battles. It further indicates that children are likely to enter the final battles if no peaceful solution is found.

At present the Sri Lankan army's advance remains stalled on 6 fronts. There is slow progress by the 58th division on the western side, but the LTTE has not yet reached their planned defensive positions. We can expect them to continue pulling back on the western front till they reach their defensive points at the edge of PTK, at which time there will be a stiff resistance. At that point the Sri Lankan offensive will stall on all 8 fronts, and it will be a question of time to know what happens next.

The Sri Lankan government had planned to starve the LTTE out by cutting off food and medical supplies from entering their area. They called this off after realizing the LTTE had engaged fishermen to collect huge quantities of fish from the marshy lagoons near the coast, resulting in a renewable source of food. Seeing that the LTTE was not short on food, the government realized blocking humanitarian supplies from entering the area would only discredit them and not actually hurt the LTTE. As a result they have again allowed the ICRC to deliver food and medicine by boat to the coast of the LTTE controlled area.

Over the past two weeks political leaders in the LTTE have been trying to bring about a mutual ceasefire so that tens of thousands of innocent civilians do not have to die in battle. At the same time they are not prepared to accept a one sided ceasefire, where they must surrender unconditionally - even in exchange for amnesty. The LTTE is interested in peace, but not at the cost of losing the rights of their Tamil citizens. As such it is now a show down between the world powers. Are they willing to give the Tamil people a just peace, or will they force a final bloody battle in which tens of thousands will die on each side?

Sri Lankan army resorts to suicide bombing

Recent reports from the Sri Lankan military indicate they have resorted to using a suicide bombing against incoming LTTE fighters, who eventually over ran the 59th division south of PTK.

A Sri Lankan soldier, Cpl Pushpakumara, told his senior officers to fall back with the remaining men, while he went forward after attaching claymore mines to his body. There is no information as to whether his suicide strike was effective or not.

Differing from the government's version of the event, our reports indicate he had been wounded in combat as the LTTE was over running the Sri Lankan front lines. His fellow soldiers more or less abandoned him, since he was unable to walk, and made him resort to suicide. In order to cover up the fact that they acted like cowards, leaving him to die helplessly, they have created the story that he volunteered to become a suicide bomber.

What ever the case, the Sri Lankan government is very proud of his actions, and are glorifying him for his sacrifice as a suicide bomber. It is interesting to note the government's sudden change in how they view suicide bombings. In the past they have always criticized them as the actions of terrorists, but now that they have employed them they consider suicide bombings as legitimate military weapons.

Cpl Pushpakumara's fellow soldiers quote his last words as follows:

“Sir, you all move back with the others, and let me die with them [the LTTE].”

The Sri Lankan government did not say whether they were able to recover the pieces of his body so that they could display his severed head as they often do with LTTE suicide bombers.

Defence.lk confirms 59th division wiped out

The official battle map given on the Sri Lankan army's Defence.lk website shows the 59th division no longer exists south of PTK. It has been replaced by the newly formed Task Force 8, which is made up of regiments brought from Mannar. The only surviving remnants of the 59th division are those that stayed in Mulaittivu, having avoided combat for the last several weeks. Even the commando reinforcements that merged into the 59th division in the beginning of the month have been wiped out. This breaking information was first released in this collumn last week. We expect the military to change the map shortly to cover this accidental revelation.

http://defence.lk/orbat/Default.asp

You may need to zoom the map in to read the division numbers clearly.

More fake artillery findings by Sri Lankan Army

For the third time this month the Sri Lankan army has released fake reports that they seized LTTE artillery pieces. This latest report is unique in that, after being exposed on the previous cases, this time they went so far as to fake the photographs as well.

At first the Defence.lk website showed the following two photographs in an article titled "Two LTTE 130mm artillery barrels found - Puthukkudyiruppu west":



The only mistake about these photos is that they were both taken in 2007. After this had been exposed, Defence.lk subsequently updated their webpage with a caption under the photos admitting these photos were taken in 2007 and were not the actual photos of the artillery "barrels" seized today in the Vanni.

The other official Sri Lankan army website, army.lk, had their own doctored photos as "proof" of the find. The fact that they would go so far as to make fake photographs is really hilarious. Below are their version of the photographs:



Of the three photos they provided, two of the photos they give only in tiny thumbnail format. Once you have seen them, you can understand why they want to keep them so small. It's basically a photo of some old cement sacks, with who knows what inside. The third photo, which is the only large photo they provide, clearly shows its a staged photo. Please click on the photo to see the full screen version, so you can see the details up close:


What this photo shows is that a heavy digging machine was used to dig out this hole BEFORE the artillery barrel was placed in it. The army claims to have discovered this artillery weapon AFTER searching and digging for it, but the pattern and marks in the dug hole clearly show it was the other way around. This hole was first dug and then the item was placed into the hole.

1) Why is the hole perfectly lined up with the artillery barrel? If the item had been buried and camouflaged, there is no way the Sri Lankan army would have randomly dug a hole in perfect alignment with the artillery barrel. This clearly shows the hole was dug first, and then the artillery piece was lowered into the hole afterwards.

2) Note the firmness and consistency of the earth, it is clear that this earth was dug out one time. It is a freshly dug hole, not a redug hole.

3) Note that there is no dirt UNDER the artillery barrel, but there is dirt on TOP of the artillery barrel. This clearly shows they placed the artillery barrel in the hole and then chipped off the sides so the dirt would fall on top of it. As you can see in the photos, the sides NEXT to the artillerly barrel no longer have the teeth marks from the heavy digger, as they were chipped off to fill a little dirt on top of the artillery barrel, but all other places have very clear and visible teeth marks.

4) Note the teeth marks caused by the heavy digger. Again they are perfectly in line with the artillerly barrel, and they begin exactly where the artillery barrel begins. An amazing coincidence.

I think anyone who sees the photo honestly will admit it clearly is a staged photograph. The Sri Lankan army has been criticized recently for not providing photographic proof of their claims. As a result they instructed their soldiers to "make" proof for the propaganda stories they release.

Why is it that none of these artillery guns have anything except barrels? Do the LTTE fighters carry these around on their backs, and fire them while holding them with their arms? The obvious answer is it is alot easier to find a 4 inch pipe that looks like an artillery "barrel", then it is to fake an entire artillery gun. As far as we know these may even be toilet pipes. Knowing the Sri Lankan army, I wouldn't doubt them doing that at all.

We should also remember that on January 29th, when the government claimed to have recovered a 152 mm artillery gun, they also claimed it had been buried (though one website had an alternate version, that it was "disassembled for transport"). In that article they showed this photo, claiming this is what they recovered:


Later the REAL photo of what they found was discovered, and it was neither an artillery gun, nor were there any signs it had been buried:


Go ahead and click on this picture, so you can really laugh as you see the detail. Both claims, that it had been buried and recovered, as well as the claim that it had been dissembled for transport, are clearly lies. Having been caught in that case, the Sri Lankan army wanted to "prove" this latest find was actually "buried" and discovered by their soldiers. But it is clear from the pictures that it is just another propaganda lie from the government.

The government needs fresh news every day to keep the country's morale high. If the offensive starts to stall, and there are not "new" developments daily, people will start to realize they have been cheated. So we can expect many startling "discoveries" in the coming days as the offensive fails to move forward.

Sri Lankan government lies get worse day by day

Today a Sri Lankan military release stated:

"Round the clock UAV surveillance had revealed that LTTE cadres were greasing their weapons, wrapping them up in polythene and burying them deep in jungles, as they did in the East in 2006-7 and after the India-Sri Lankan Accord in 1987."

For the record we would like to point out that Sri Lankan UAV surveillance can only be done in the day light, and that even in the day light it is unable to see into the thick jungles where they claim the LTTE is burying their weapons.

It is amazing that government officials are so stupid that they release obvious lies that even a child could see through. How can they say they were able to record the LTTE burying weapons in thick jungles? Yet they don't offer to show any video footage to back up the claim. When they bomb buildings they have videos to show, when they bomb fishing boats they have videos to show, when the tank bund burst they had a video to show, but when they claim to have taken a video of the LTTE burying weapons deep in the forest - there is no video to show. Of course there is no video, you cannot video what happens deep inside the thick forests from thousands of feet in the air. Even an idiot knows that, but unfortunately the Sri Lankan military doesn't have enough intelligence to understand these points.

Elsewhere we find a report in the Hindu newspaper:

"LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran is still holed up in Wanni and is holding an estimated 75,000 to 80,000 civilians as human shield in 140 sq km area still under the control of the Tigers, according to confessions made by two Black Tiger (suicide squad) cadre who surrendered to the military over a fortnight ago."

As we have mentioned several times before, the Hindu newspaper has been on the payroll of the Sri Lankan government for years. How else can they have a report where "two black tiger cadres" are quoted using the exact words as Sri Lankan government press releases? These two black tiger cadres were obviously math wizards, because while fighting in the battle, they managed to COUNT EVERY CIVILIAN IN THE VANNI, and the number happened to be THE EXACT NUMBER THE SRI LANKAN GOVERNMENT IS QUOTING! How can anyone believe that these supposed black tigers happened to say there are 75,000 civilians in the Vanni? These black tiger cadres would have had to count all of the civilians, then subtract the 35,000 civilians who came to the government side last week (since the black tiger cadres were arrested 15 days ago), and then after subtracting that number, they would arrive at the governments number of 75,000 civilians.

While all of the non-government organizations say there are 250,000 civilians in the Vanni, these two black tiger cadre had actually counted them, subtracted the number that had come to the government side, and came to the number of 75,000 which was the same number the Sri Lankan government has been claiming. Can anyone doubt whether the Hindu newspaper is on the payroll of the Sri Lankan genocidal government? The Hindu newspaper has been supporting the genocide against tamils for years in exchange for money.

Elsewhere in their article they state:

"The state-owned English weekly, Sunday Observer, in an interview with the Tiger cadre quoted them as saying Prabakaran’s elder son, Charles Anthony, is among the top leaders leading the cadre in their last-ditch attempt to halt the military advance. They told the paper that Anthony and Soosai, Sea Tigers chief, had briefed them on the mission for an underwater demolition..."

Why does the Sri Lankan government suddenly try to promote Prabhakaran's son, who is only 23 years old, to the post of leader of the LTTE fighters on the front lines? Why does the government over the past few months keep claiming Prabhakaran's son planned this attack and that attack? Do you really believe a 23 year old boy is leading and planning all of the LTTE's attacks?

The real reason is obvious. The Sri Lankan government wants to execute Prabhakaran and his son, but they know the world will not support killing a 23 year old boy who was not closely involved in the fighting. The solution? Keep claiming that Prabhakaran's son masterminded all of the attacks. They want to attribute as many crimes as possible against him, so if they do catch him, they can execute him without people feeling it is unjust.

Sri Lankan navy cordon proves ineffective

Recent reports from the Sri Lankan military indicate that many small fiber glass boats have been slipping through the Navy cordon set up around Mullaitivu. Civilians have been found reaching all the way to Point Pedro in the Jaffna peninsula.

"According to military reports received, 78 Tamil civilians including 20 children have arrived in three groups braving the choppy Mullaittivu seas in fiber glass boats. 25 people including 7 men, 10 women and 8 children had arrived in the coast of Point Pedro, Jaffna at around 8.a.m., while 34 others including 11 men, 15 women and 8 children sought protection with Navy at Pulmoddai at 1.50p.m."

If civilians are able to reach all the way to Jaffna by sea, it is clear the Sri Lankan navy cordon is completely ineffective. There were reports two days ago of the Sri Lankan army firing artillery out to sea from their Point Pedro base, indicating an LTTE vessel had been spotted near the coast.

We should note that the LTTE has the added advantage of radar and sonar equipment that lets them know of all Sri Lankan ship locations, making it simple for them to slip past the so-called "cordon" layed around Mullaitivu. If even civilians with no such equipment are able to break through, then it would not be a problem for the LTTE to do it as well.

59th division wiped out; 6 divisions stalled; "Operation Kiss of Death" in planning

Recent inside reports from the Sri Lankan military indicate that the 59th division has been completely disabled by the ongoing front line confrontations with the LTTE. Already the government tried to reinforce them with a commando regiment, but that quickly failed, with most of them being lost in combat operations over the last week. As an emergency measure, the 53rd division had been split in half, with one half being merged into the 59th division in an attempt to boost the numbers at the front lines. That too has proven to be unsustainable, as the numbers of soldiers being killed in combat continues to go up.

The government has been frantically trying to stop the 59 division from officially being written off, so they have resorted to all sorts of mergers and reinforcement attempts from other divisions. This has only proven to delay the problem they are facing, as they have still been unable to dent the LTTE front lines south of PTK.

The latest plan, which is a last resort effort to keep the facts surrounding the fate of the 59th division concealed, is to create a new "Task Force 8" which will replace the 59 division troops stationed on the east coast in Mullaitivu. Those troops in Mullaitivu are ugently needed at the South of PTK, as the 59th division stationed there has already been wiped out. Only the splitoff from the 53rd division has kept the frontline from falling.

A second regiment from Mannar has been brought to the frontlines and merged under the name of 59th division. The fact is they are only the 59th division on paper, as the entire 59th division no longer exists. In their place is a combination of the split from 53rd division, the newly sent Mannar regiment, and the remnants from Mulaittivu (who have avoided combat for the last two weeks).

We have also received reports that officers are hesitant to enter the combat in the area south of PTK, and as a result the Sri Lankan military generals have been "promoting" these officers before sending them into battle as a way to entice them into combat. This has never been done before and indicates the delicate position the Sri Lankan army is in at present. By promoting the officers BEFORE entering combat, it ensures their families will receive a higher pension if they die in combat. This seems to be the only way to get these officers to agree to enter the frontlines, as the counter attacks have been so ferocious.

At this very moment, the Sri Lankan military is frantically trying to put together another division to reinforce the lines south of PTK before the 53rd division gives way. Our reports from the Vanni indicate that the LTTE is working to break down the 53rd division and remants of the 59th division, both of which are already at half their original size despite reinforcements, and then over run the forward defence lines to outflank Task Forces 2, 3, and 4. Once these Task Forces have been outflanked, the LTTE would launch severe assaults from the front and back of the Task Forces, with the intention of completely wiping all three of them out. With the LTTE having penetrated behind their lines, there would be no opportunity to retreat. From the front the LTTE would launch endless waves of attacks, smashing these Task Forces from three sides. The name of the operation is reported to be "Operation Kiss of Death".

Elsewhere on the battle front it is found that a total of 6 divisions have completely stalled in their forward movement. As reported in a previous collumn, the 55th division in Chalai is unable to cross the natural water inlet in the North. Elsewhere, Taskforces 2, 3 and 4 have been unable to touch the A-35 highway. They have all been held around 2 kilometers south of the A35 road (for an entire month now). The 59th and 53rd divisions have faced the brunt of the attacks, and have been bogged down south of PTK, unable to move the frontlines any closer to the city. The entire 59th division has been wiped out, and is only being maintained on paper by infusion of new regiments from Mannar.

As mentioned in last week's collumn, the LTTE have allowed the Sri Lankan military to "reclaim" their former frontlines south of PTK, which the LTTE had over run on February 1st. The LTTE does not wish to over stretch their supply lines, and as such have no intention to hold any of the positions they over run. The plan is to strike and then draw the enemy back into the forest, where they have difficulty resupplying. So far this tactic has resulted in an entire division being decimated. If the Sri Lankan army is not able to find a solution to this problem, it is only a matter of time before the reinforcements of 59th division and the remaining 53rd division get over ran. If that happens, then all three Task Forces will be doomed and the entire operation will be called off.

What is happening at present is the Sri Lankan army continues to send reinforcements from other cities, in an attempt to keep the LTTE "boxed in", but everytime they do this they are thinning out their defenses away from the battle zone. If there is a break anywhere in the lines surrounding the LTTE, then the entire operation is a failure, because it allows free movement for the LTTE. As a result the government is forced to sacrifice everything they have to hold the lines, which is leading to a very dangerous situation in other areas of the island. The increase in attacks in the east is a small sign of this. It is only a matter of time before a major attack occurs in these weakened areas.

Soosai resurrects from the dead for the seventh time

In an amazing development today, LTTE sea tigers leader "Soosai" resurrected from the dead for the seventh time in the last 10 years. The Sri Lankan military acknowledged the miracle, but declined to elaborate on the details. They said, "It is still not clear whether it was Soosai who resurrected from the dead, or whether Prabhakaran was the one who rose Soosai from the dead."

For an entire week the Sri Lankan military made a huge noise, releasing daily press releases explaining how they had killed Soosai. They also released a video of the Sri Lankan airforce supposedly bombing his "secret hideout". That "secret hideout" happened to be the biggest and most visible building in the entire PTK area.

Now that a recent recording of Soosai has been found indicating he is alive, the Sri Lankan military has suddenly decided the building they bombed was actually "Swarnam's" secret hideout. But wait, for an entire week they shouted to the entire world that they were certain it was Soosai's secret hideout, and as soon as they find he is still living they decide it was actually someone else's house. What happened to their intelligence reports? Do the intelligence reports suddenly change over night just because Soosai is still alive? What about their claims of "intercepted radio tansmissions" that indicated Soosai was missing? What about the government's statement that it was "confirmed" that Soosai was at the site of the bombing? These were all just the usual lies of the government propaganda department.

It should be noted that when the government claimed to kill Soosai, how many headlines appeared in newspapers? But when Soosai is found to be alive, no such headlines appear. This is because the news "reporters" are all on pay from the Sri Lankan government. Any news that makes the Sri Lankan government look bad or foolish doesn't become "news". The reporters, especially newspapers like "The Hindu", only publish what the government tells them to publish. Maybe they should rename that paper to "The Buddhist".

Sri Lankan army pretends to capture LTTE artillery

Pictures of the LTTE scrap yard which was reported as the army capturing all of the LTTE's heavy weapons.



Today an article appeared in the Island newspaper titled "Fleeing LTTE abandons more heavy artillery in final showdown". In this article they made tall claims that the Sri Lankan government had captured most of the LTTE artillery weapons. Just to bring some facts to this fairy tale, I would like to inform everyone that not a single LTTE artillery piece was captured.

The Sri Lankan army came across an LTTE factory site that made and repaired artillery pieces. At the factory site there were piles of old and broken artillery pieces. It is completely natural for a factory manufacturing artillery weapons to have a scrap pile of waste material and broken artillery tubes.

Note the exact claims the government makes, that they captured 120 mm artillery "tubes". What is an artillery tube? Its an iron pipe, that's all. The government has found a scrap pile with some iron tubes that were going to be used in the manufacture of artillery weapons, or that were left over scraps from broken weapons.

This is another case of the Sri Lankan government making huge claims when they actually recover nothing at all. Some other notable examples were the recovery of "125 sea tiger boats" at Chundilukam. Even though they had a camera, the army was only able to take a photo of one old broken fishing boat. Why wouldn't they take photos of all of the 125 sea tiger boats they captured? The fact is, as of now they still have not found any of the Sea Tiger's Dvora crafts, nor the LTTE airplanes, nor their artillery pieces, nor their battle tanks or armored personnel carriers. In other words they still haven't recovered anything of substance despite reducing the LTTE to 100 square kilometers of space.

Another example of a tall claim by the government was that they had recovered 300 barrels of diesel fuel, totaling around 70,000 liters of diesel. Again, despite having a camera, they only took photos of 5 barrels which could have been empty as far as anyone knows. If they really found 300 barrels of deisel, wouldn't they take a picture of all the 300 barrels?

Last week they claimed to have found a 40 foot x 20 foot container filled with amunition, but they never took a single photo of it. Such a container full of weaponry would contain millions of rounds of ammunition, making it the largest military find ever, but they never took a single photo as proof. Oddly, their claim comes just a few days after the LTTE announced capturing over 1 million rounds of ammunition from the Sri Lankan government at PTK. Coincidence?

Why do they keep making claims of finding huge stocks of items, but then take photos of just one or two things? The reason is obvious, they are exaggerating their successes to fool the Sinhalese public in Colombo. With over 20,000 Sri Lankan soldiers killed in combat in the last 1 year, they need to cover their loses with all the smoke and celebrations they can. One day the real numbers of Sri Lankan soldiers killed in this battle will be revealed to the Sinhalese public, and at that time Rajapaksa will go down in history as the worst president Sri Lanka has ever seen.

One of the "prize" catches of the Sri Lankan army, a broken car with no tires and no engine. Claimed to be Prabhakaran's "personal" car, yet they didn't explain how he could drive it without an engine.

Supposedly 300 barrels full of diesel were recovered, but the other 299 barrels didn't fit in the photo. Each of these barrels is supposed to have 220 liters of diesel, but the Sri Lankan soldiers are so strong they can lift them single handedly.

An LTTE plane was recovered in full working order... but later it turned out to be a Sri Lankan plane shot down by the LTTE years ago.

At Chundikulam the Sri Lankan army claimed to have found 125 sea tiger boats, but this is the only photo they took. Where is the proof for the 125 boats they claimed to have found? That boat doesn't even have a motor.

On January 29th the Sri Lankan military announced they had seized one of the LTTE's 152mm artillery cannons. Defence.lk, the official website of the Sri Lankan military, published the above photo along with the article, claiming this is what they had seized. Wow, that must have been an impressive find! But the REAL photo of what they found is below:

So why did the government publish a completely different photo showing a fully functioning LTTE artillery piece, when all they found was an old rusted iron tube?

All Vanni civilians to be jailed for 3 years

Today the government announced that all 300,000 civilians from the Vanni would be held for at least 3 years in military detention camps, i.e. "prisons", for security reasons. Apparently this is what the Sri Lankan government considers to be "liberation" for the Tamil civilians. The government further outlined the "luxuries" that will be provided to the prisoners, which include just one toilet for every five families. One can estimate that on average each family consists of 5 to 7 members. So this means there will be one toilet for every 25 to 35 people. Thank you government of Sri Lanka for liberating your Tamil civilians from a peaceful life in Kilinochi and depositing them into hell.

Further, the total land that will be provided for these 300,000 imprisoned civilians will be 1,100 acres, or 0.2 cents (88 square feet) of land per person (after deducting land for roads and government use). An average housing plot in India is generally considered to be 2400 square feet (5.5 cents).

The cost to maintain these huge prison complexes will not be born by the Sri Lankan government. They expect international aid agencies to pay the bills. What the world fails to see is that this humanitarian disaster is completely man made. There is no need to force 300,000 people to remain imprisoned for 3 years. If you simply stopped fighting and let them return to their homes, there would be no need for international aid organizations to take care of these civilians. You are creating an artificial humanitarian disaster, and then calling on the world to help the suffering civilians. We all know the Sri Lankan people would never offer to feed the Tamil civilians on their own. They would rather let them starve than have to spend their own money to help them. That's why they always turn to international aid organizations and exploit their generosity.

The government states that these detention camps will also have "community centers" that contain a television for the public's enjoyment. Unfortunately there will only be one such community center for every 760 people. So you may have to wait a few years before you get a chance to watch the television program of your choice, and who knows which language they will make you watch it in. We can only hope that it will still be legal to communicate in the Tamil language.

The government's official position is that these civilians will have to remain imprisoned in detention camps until the LTTE is completely finished. Judging by the 26 year long war that we have already seen, these civilians may have to wait another 50 years before being released from confinement, as I seriously doubt the government will be able to eliminate the LTTE in 3 years.

I think the real concern is what will the government do to these people's lands while they are imprisoned for years on end. It is not too much to suspect that the government may try to colonize the Tamil's lands with Sinhalese civilians, as they have done in the past. Such an attempt would ultimately lead to an ethnic blood bath, and years of continued war. I think it is also quite obvious that any Tamil civilian who would dare return to the Vanni to check on their house, land or possessions would be killed on the claim that they were LTTE infiltrators. In a land with no witnesses, there is little hope for justice, peace or safety.

Video of PTK front line fighting

The following video was taken on February 1st during the first day of the PTK counter attack. Over 1,000 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed by February 6th. Please note the end of the video, how casually the fighters walk around the area, which was formerly the Sri Lankan frontline. This shows the situation on the ground is not at all as the Sri Lankan government is projecting it. Also note how the LTTE is able to use tanks and tractors without any fear of the Sri Lankan airforce. The claims made by the government regarding daily air raids are extreme exagerations. The LTTE possess anti aircraft missiles, restricting air raids to non-combat areas.

Sri Lankan army begins shooting displaced civilians

"A Sri Lankan soldier poses for a propaganda video while an injured Tamil man is dying inside the Truck. After finishing the video he piles the dead childs body on top of the injured Tamil man without concern for the living."


We are receiving reports from the Vanni of numerous cases where the Sri Lankan army has opened fire on Tamil civilians who were trying to come to the area of government control. In all of these cases, the Sri Lankan government claims it was the LTTE who fired on the civilians.

If this were true, the civilians would not be able to recover the bodies of the dead. If the shooting took place in the LTTE controlled area, how did the families recover the dead bodies with the LTTE standing there next to them firing. How did the families manage to carry those bodies for many kilometers while supposedly being shot at by the LTTE.

The fact that the bodies are with the civilians at the military checkpoints shows the shootings occured near the checkpoints, and the culprits are the Sri Lankan military. In each case a nervous or angry soldier opens fire on the civilians, untill another soldier stops him, resulting in the deaths of many civilians. After the firing, the remaining relatives are allowed to collect the body and continue on to the military controlled area where they are held under military guard. No one is allowed to meet and speak to the witnesses, as they do not want it to be known that the government was responsible for the shootings.

As usual, newspapers like The Hindu, who's reporters are known to receive a regularly monthly payment from the Sri Lankan government, printed the story exactly as the Sri Lankan government claimed. They didn't feel it necessary it investigate or hear from witnesses.

In the case of the recent suicide bomb attack on Sri Lankan soldiers at Dharmapuram, the government claims 8 civilians were killed in the blast. This is a complete lie. All of the civilians killed died when Sri Lankan soldiers opened fire on the waiting civilians with machine guns after the blast. In the video shown by the Sri Lankan government, not a single soldier's body is in the area of the dead Tamil civilians. There are no blast signs around the dead bodies. With the exception of one chair, all the plastic chairs have no damage at all. If a bomb blast had occurred in that area, these plastic chairs would have been blown to bits. There is a dead body still sitting in a plastic chair, and his body is covered in blood, but the plastic chairs next to him are completely unharmed. This is again proof that he was killed by machine gun fire, not by a bomb explosion. Furthermore, the ground surrounding the dead bodies shows no signs of an explosion. The fact is the explosion took place far away from where these civilians were killed. The killing of these Tamil civilians was a retaliatory strike by angered Sri Lankan soldiers.

Another important point to note in the video is how the injured were treated. They claim the injured civilians were immediately flown by helicopter to specialty hospitals for emergency treatement. But even by the time the news camera man arrived, there was still a severely injured Tamil civilian in the back of a truck. You can see him in the last frames of the video shown by the Sri Lankan government. They made this severely injured civilian lie bleeding to death while they staged their propaganda film. In the end they pick up the dead body of a child and dump it on top of the injured civilian, showing no concern for him at all. We should note that all of the injured soldiers had already been cleared from the area. Even the dead bodies of the soldiers had been cleared out, yet the injured Tamil civilian was still lying there dying as they piled dead bodies on top of him. This is the real treatment the Sri Lankan army gave to the injured Tamil civilians.


"An injured Tamil man lying naked in the road. If this is how a Tamil civilian is treated in the propaganda photo shoot, imagine how he will be treated once the camera leaves."

The U.N., who remained silent for a month despite daily killings of innocent Tamil civilians by artillery bombings, was suddenly quick to condemn the human bomb. Why hasn't the U.N. been condemning the attacks by the Sri Lankan government on Tamil civilians every day for the last one month? When bombs were falling on the PTK hospital, the only thing the U.N. could say was "we aren't able to tell which side fired the shots." Everyone knows which side has been bombing the PTK hospital. But the U.N., despite seeing that the artillery shells were coming from the government side, still insisted they didn't know who to blame. In the case of the civilian deaths after the suicide bombing, the U.N. was able to quickly blame the LTTE without the need for an investigation into the facts. This is the supposed impartiality of the U.N. in Sri Lanka.

4,000 civilians "surrender" to armed forces

Today the Sri Lankan army released a press statement that was titled "4000 civilians surrendered to Sri Lanka army during the day". How can they dare to say that the Tamil civilians "surrendered" to them? If the Sri Lankan army considers the Tamils to be their own civilians who were held hostage by the LTTE, then how can these civilians ever surrender to the Sri Lankan army? The use of the word surrender in their press release reveals the mindset of the Sinhalese. The Tamil civilians are viewed as an enemy being conquered by the Sri Lankan army. Those Tamils comming out of the LTTE held areas must "surrender" to the Sri Lankan armed forces. After surrendering they are held in detention camps for years on end without any freedom, often being subjected to torture, or even death. The Sri Lankan army has given an ultimatum to the Tamil civilians: either surrender to the army or face death through aerial bombardment.

Later in the day they updated the headline to read "4000 civilians reached the Sri Lanka army during the day", but it is too late. Their racism has already been exposed by what they initially wrote from their heart. Even after updating the headline, they still foolishly left the following line in the report: "Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that the civilians who fled the rebel held areas have surrendered to the security forces at Visuamadu in Mullaitivu."

For weeks the Sri Lankan army has claimed that the LTTE has been holding these civilians as a human shield, but it is obvious that these civilians voluntarily ran from the invading forces, not wishing to "surrender" their liberties to an unjest and discriminatory government. Only when they were bombed into complete submission by the Sri Lankan army were they left with no other choice but to give in to the invaders or face certain death. Their fate will be like thousands of other Tamil civilians who have "surrendered" to the Sri Lankan army in the past. They will be locked away in concentration camps to be systematically brutalized by the Sinhalese invaders.

General Fonseka has publicly said in the past that Sri Lanka belongs only to the Sinhalese, and now the army has furthered this position by declaring that Tamil civilians must "surrender" to the armed forces. We thank the Sri Lankan military for clearly stating their position in regards to the Tamil civilians. Only enemies are required to surrender to an army, and this is exactly what is being required of the Tamil population in the North of Sri Lanka.

Top secret Soosai Bunker was the most visible building in PTK

According to the Sri Lankan military, the largest building visible from the sky happened to be the top secret hideout of the leaders of LTTE. After showing the bunkers in Dharmapuram and Vishwamadhu, which were both camouflaged as simple coconut leaf huts, why would they expect anyone to believe that the largest, most visible building in PTK was the main secret bunker of the LTTE? This clearly shows the Sri Lankan government is attempting to destroy whatever they can in the name of their war on terror.

At the same time that the Sri Lankan government claimed to have bombed this so-called secret bunker, which was really the most stand-out building in the entire city, real reports from the Vanni indicate that a private hospital in PTK had been bombed.

The government statement said:

"Meanwhile, the defence intelligence sources said that the target was registered after through analysis of intelligence obtained through technical and human sources."

In otherwords, it was the largest building they could see on their surveillance footage (referred to as "thorough analysis" in the words of the Sri Lankan military), so they decided to drop a ton of bombs on it and call it Soosai's secret hideout.

Where will the final stand be?

With the LTTE being cornered into a smaller and smaller area of land, everyone has been waiting for the "final stand", a battle where the LTTE launches a fight till the death against the Sri Lankan army surrounding them. The first question that comes up in regards to a final battle is where would the LTTE choose to defend themselves. All military analysts have been expecting the final stand would take place in Mullaittivu, where for years it was believed the LTTE had stocked their heavy weapons. It came as a shock to most when the LTTE withdrew from Mullaittivu without a fight. It was then thought that the LTTE must be planning to hold their final battle in Chalai, since that is the head quarters of the sea tigers, which would give the LTTE more firepower, plus a chance to escape by sea.

The problem with this thinking is the foolish military analysts are looking at the LTTE as an ordinary military force, and based on that they are extrapolating what they suspect the LTTE must be planning. It is true that most armies, when faced with insurmountable odds, would definitely keep "escape" as a high priority in their war planning. Thus Chalai and Mullaitivu would be the obvious places to hold a "last stand"... but only if we were talking about an ordinary army manned by hired staff. The LTTE is not an ordinary army. They are as unconventional as could be imagined, and escape is the last thing on their minds during combat.

When the LTTE withdrew from Mullaitivu, military analysts were shocked and confused. Everyone had been 100% certain the last stand would take place in "the rebels main military bastion". What we all need to realize is the LTTE had fooled the entire world. Their military might had never been based in Mullaitivu. Why would you station yourself in a place that was previously your enemy's military base? Only a fool would mass all of their military power into a place that was completely known to the Sri Lankan army. The Sri Lankan army ruled Mullaitivu for years, and it was they who built the military fortifications in Mullaitivu.

The LTTE are much more intelligent than what the world is giving them credit for. They made everyone believe Mullaitivu was the center of their military power, and that Chalai was the center of their naval power, but when the Sri Lankan army marched into both of these places with little confrontation they found nothing at all. The LTTE had completely withdrawn from both of these cities without any signs of the great "last stand" that everyone was expecting.

As we get closer to the end game, it has now become apparent that the LTTE is going to make their last stand in Puthukkudiyiruppu. If you study the satelite maps of the region this makes the most sense, as the built up city of Puthukkudiyiruppu extends all the way to the coast. Though the newspapers keep mentioning that the LTTE will resort to jungle warfare, the fact is most of the jungle exists south of the A-35 road, which is government controlled territory. There is very little jungle left in LTTE controlled territory. The final battle plan of the LTTE does not involve jungle combat, but urban combat.

Day after day the Sri Lankan army makes claims of more LTTE camps being "overrun". In each case they make claims of recovering 10 or 20 bodies of LTTE fighters. But while they are able to show photos of broken tractors recovered from the "battle sites", as well as empty plastic barrels supposedly filled with petrol, they have never been able to show the bodies of these LTTE fighters they claim to have recovered.

Oddly, the morgue in Vavuniya, which only has a capacity to hold 40 to 50 bodies is not hitting its capacity. The morgue is not allowed to burry the bodies of LTTE soldiers without receiving a court order, and only two such orders have been given since the beginning of this year. Those two orders covered the burrial of around 70 LTTE bodies in total, and they were from the fighting in Kilinochi. So from this it is clear that the claimed recovery of LTTE bodies is false. If these bodies were actually recovered on a daily basis:

1) there would be photographs. The army is willing to show photos of every little thing they recover, from empty barrels to broken tractors, yet not a single dead LTTE body.

2) the morgue in Vavuniya would be full.

3) the morgue would be applying for court permission to burry these bodies.

Since none of these three are occuring, it is clear that the LTTE is not being overrun, but it has been withdrawing from all sides, bringing their forces into the Puthukkudiyiruppu area for their final stand.

It is known that the LTTE possesses around 10 main battle tanks, several armored personel carriers, many large artillery pieces, and perhaps a couple multi-barrel rocket launchers. Yet the Sri Lankan army has yet to find a single piece of heavy weaponry. The one recovery they did make was of a damaged 152 mm artillery barrel that was abandoned by the LTTE.

What will be interesting will be to see how the LTTE chooses to use these heavy weapons in the defence of Puthukkudiyiruppu. They must carefully hide these weapons to avoid Sri Lankan air strikes. From past experience, the LTTE's tactic is to bring their tanks out and fire on a target for a few minutes, before quickly moving the tanks to other locations for hiding. We must remember that the LTTE possesses advanced radar facilities, which warn them of any incoming air strikes much in advance. It is for this reason that the Sri Lankan army has resorted to using helicopter gunships, which can fly below radar level.

If we look closely at the satelite photos of the region, we see that both Chalai and Mulaitivu are split in the middle by water inlets from the ocean. These create ideal natural defence lines. If the LTTE was to try to make a stand against the Sri Lankan army, it would be intelligent to try to hold the advancing army at these two points and then send the bulk of their fighters to the middle (south and west of Puthukkudiyiruppu). The inlets in Mullaitivu and Chalai allow the LTTE to defend these positions with minimal manpower. Basically the coastline invasion has been sealed off on both sides, tying up two full Sri Lankan divisions, while the LTTE has to commit a small fraction of soldiers in return. The Sri Lankan army will have to resort to ferrying their armor across these inlets, which will leave them completely vulnerable to counter attack pushes. Any soldier or armored vehicle that crosses the inlet will be unable to retreat, and thus a sitting duck. It is highly possible that the LTTE may allow the army to cross these inlets to trap them, and then make a large push against them to completely wipe out the trapped forces.

While two divisions are sealed off on the coast, the remaining divisions are approaching from the South and West towards Puthukkudiyiruppu. What is interesting in these places is that the LTTE has given them the forest. The LTTE is defending the city, and the Sri Lankan army is positioned in the forests to the South and West of Puthukkudiyiruppu. While all military analysts expected the LTTE to make their stand in the forest, they have done the exact opposite, and have given the forest to the enemy. What could be the reason for this?

Militarily the LTTE is brilliant. They have convinced the entire world that they would make their stand in Mullaitivu and Chalai, and then resort to fighting from the jungles, but in reality they have done the complete opposite. They have given the jungle to their enemy, who is not used to defending from the jungles. It is a death trap for the Sri Lankan army. The LTTE is planning huge counter strikes into the jungles occupied by the army. In such a situation the Sri Lankan army will be completely unable to call in airstrikes, as the thick jungle canapy will not provide the necessary visibility.

The basic strategy is as follows: Allow the Sri Lankan army to take positions in the jungle, while LTTE holds the urban city line. When the Sri Lankan army brings in supplies to their jungle base camps, launch heavy surprise attacks under the cover of the thick jungle, leading to panic amongst the enemy soldiers. For the Sri Lankan army, resupplying their forces deep in the jungle will be extremely difficult, and airstrikes will be completely blind.

But how long can the LTTE continue this strategy? If we go by the estimates given by the Sri Lankan army, there are only 500 LTTE fighters left. If this was true, they would not be able to hold off the 7 approaching Sri Lankan divisions on 7 different fronts for a single day. We should note that all of the videos coming out of the LTTE held Vanni show one thing: order. There are no signs of panic. If the LTTE had only 500 soldiers left, we would not see people peacefully moving about in an orderly way. The LTTE infrastructure is very much still existant and functioning in the cities they control.

Let us look at it from another angle. What if there really are 400,000 civilians displaced in the area they control. The populations of kilinochi and mullaittivu are much more than 500,000 people. If 250,000 people displaced from kilinochi, and if 150,000 people were already in Mullaitivu, then that would total 400,000 people. Out of that 400,000 people, how many are ready to fight and how many have received defence training? What if 10% of those people were prepared to fight for their country? 40,000 new soldiers. And what if the LTTE actually had 15,000 hardened soldiers under their command? That would give them an army of 55,000.

So its up to you to decide whether you think the LTTE was administering 15,000 square kilometers of territory with only 500 soldiers. Its up to you to decide whether you think the LTTE spent the last 6 years building roads and skyskrapers, or whether instead they spent their time training their civilian population as a defence force. If its the later, then the Sri Lankan army is going to be in for a surprise in Puthukkudiyiruppu. The final stand may not be as final as you expect.

As a last note, let us analyze the numbers on each side. The Tamils are fighting to the death, knowing full well that they will likely die. That is their glory. The Sri Lankan soldiers on the other hand are poor farmers who are only there to receive a pay check. They don't want to die, and if things start going badly they will run to save their lives. There are 7 divisions, each with around 8,000 soldiers in them. For ever 1 soldier killed, there are another 2 soldiers injured and taken out of combat. In addition to this, for every soldier killed, there is another soldier that will desert. If a division loses 50% of its personel, it is effectively defeated and will not be able to go into battle. For this to happen each division would only need to receive 1,000 soldiers killed in battle:

1) 1,000 soldiers killed in battle
2) 2,000 soldiers injured and removed from combat
3) 1,000 soldiers desert

This adds up to 4,000 soldiers, or 50% of the entire division removed from combat, which would make the entire division unusable.

All the LTTE has to do is inflict 1,000 deaths to each division, and this battle will end with a huge loss for the Sri Lankan army. That is an impossible feat if the LTTE is down to just 500 soldiers, but if the LTTE actually has 55,000 soldiers as some suspect, then there is no way the Sri Lankan army will be able to sustain their invasion.

This battle may actually be the turning point in the war. In just a few weeks, Sri Lanka's international image has completely changed. It is now looked upon as an international villain, perpetrating genocide, bombing hospitals, etc. The president has given interviews where he has repeatedly stuck his foot in his mouth, making himself look like a fool in front of the entire world. His statements justifying the bombing of a hospital, his criticism of murdered journalists, and his calling aid agencies as terrorists have exposed him to the world. If this war does not end within a matter of days, and if instead it is dragged on for months, the world view will likely shift dramatically towards the Tamils side. There is a strong posibility that the LTTE will emerge from this with full international backing, along with a strong military victory against the Sri Lankan army. If such a scenario comes true, this battle would surely be the decisive turning point in the struggle for Eelam.

12 Count Genocide Indictment Charges Filed Against Top Sri Lanka Officials

A 12-count indictment on charges for genocide was filed with Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice yesterday, against Sri Lanka's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Defense Secretary Sarath Fonseka. Bruce Fein, former deputy asst. attorney general during the Reagan Administration, filed the indictment yesterday under the U.S. Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 (GAA). Both are charged with command responsibility for genocidal deaths perpetrated by their subordinates in the Sri Lankan security forces.

Fein asserts that this is the first genocide investigation and prosecution under the GAA. The GAA applies to genocide irrespective of the place of its occurrence. Rajapaksa and Fonseka are U.S. citizen and green-card holders, respectively.

The indictment charges Rajapaksa and Fonseka with genocide of Tamils in twelve discrete geographic areas of Sri Lanka between December 6, 2005 (when both men assumed their government positions) to the present. The indictment chronicles more than 3,750 extrajudicial killings, with 10,000 suffering bodily injury and more than 1.3 million displacements. Fein states, "These numbers far exceed displacements in Kosovo which lead to genocide counts before the Intl. Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia."

Fein, counsel for the groups Tamils Against Genocide and newly formed Tamil Legal Defense Fund, expects that the filing of the indictment will prompt victims' families to file suits against Rajapaksa and Fonseka on behalf of victims under the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1991.

1,000 Sri Lankan Soldiers killed in LTTE Counter Attack

Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) this week seized an arms cache from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), sources close to LTTE told TamilNet Friday. Hundreds of SLA crack commandos were drawn into Mannaka'ndal and Keappaapulavu 'boxes' and were cut off from their rear supplies during a pre-emptive strike by the Tiger forces, resulting in the loss of more than one thousand SLA soldiers since February 01. An arms cache, which was full of weapons as the SLA was in full preparation to launch its 'final assault' on PTK was seized by the Tiger commandos engaged in the preemptive strike.

The sources further revealed that there were at least 20 mortars, thousands of shells, several hundreds of assault rifles, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), RPG launchers and a conservative estimate of one million rounds were among the arms and ammunitions seized by the Tigers. The Tigers had emptied the store of stockpiled arms and ammunitions by the time the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed the location of its own arms cache.

Meanwhile, more than 100 SLA soldiers perished in a Black Tiger attack on Tuesday in Keappaapulavu, according to Wednesday edition of Eezha Naatham daily, the only newspaper printed in LTTE controlled territory.

The newspaper displayed photos of Black Tiger (BT) cadres with the LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan.

The BT cadres rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the SLA installation and the Tiger commandos stormed the 'box' and brought it under their control.

Meanwhile, an Informed Sri Lankan military official in Vavuniyaa told a reliable source that an SLA colonel, who had refused to retreat with his soldiers and was insisting his rear command to establish the supply link with his unit, was the target of the BT attack. The source also revealed that there have been a number of surprise attacks by the LTTE units deep inside the SLA occupied territory.

Around 20 supply vehicles of the SLA that attempted to link up were destroyed in the attack. The Tigers also seized heavy weapons and military hardware, the sources further said.

The LTTE has released photographs of female commandos taken before the pre-emptive strike.

Meanwhile, defensive fighting was reported north of Mullaiththeevu near Chaalai.

Shocking thermo-baric PAINTBALL GUNS found!

"Monkeys trying to figure out what a paintball gun is."

In what has to be one of the most hilarious mistakes the Sri Lankan defence department ever made, Udaya Nanayakkara referred to finding LTTE thermo-baric weapons:

"Military spokes-person Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told The Island that although they had been aware of the possibility of the LTTE acquiring thermo-baric weapons, the recovery of Tippman A-5 guns capable of firing deadly chemicals was startling."

The Tippman A-5 gun is a paintball gun, a toy gun used for combat training, or more commonly used by kids to play combat. It shoots a small paint pellet that bursts on contact leaving a large paint mark on the person indicating he was "shot". A thermo-baric weapon on the other hand is a weapon sometimes as powerful as a small nuclear bomb.

There is no such thing as a thermo-baric pistol or machine gun. The smallest thermo-baric weapon in use is a special RPG used by the US military. A paintball gun has absolutely no resemblance or connection to a thermo-baric weapon. The Sri Lankan military general described the recovery of these toy paintball guns as "startling". They can be bought for around $210 at any toy store.

Through out the recent battles the Sri Lankan military has routinely exagerated the items they have recovered, but this has to be the most ridiculous exageration yet. In the past they showed photos of a single broken fishing boat and claimed to have recovered 100 deadly sea tiger boats. On another day they showed a photo of 3 empty plastic barrels, and claimed to have recovered 300 barrels filled with 70,000 liters of deisel. Today they recovered a bunch of toy paintball guns, and claimed it was a black tiger base with deadly weapons of mass destruction - banned by international laws.

After describing the above paintball gun as being a deadly thermo-baric weapon, the general went on to describe the havoc such a weapon can cause:

"The use of thermo-baric weapons is prohibited under international law. The thermo baric bomb — features a two-stage explosion. The first blast occurs upon the bomb’s penetration of a cave, tunnel or a bunker and scatters explosive dust throughout the area where the bomb lands. This is followed a fraction of a second later by a second, larger explosion that literally sucks oxygen out of a confined space."

Please look at the photo at the top and tell me if this toy paintball gun looks like it can shoot a bunker-busting missile. Are these army generals really trained in warfare or are they illiterate monkeys? Looking at the top photo of the military generals examining the toy paintball gun in awe, I suspect they are the later.