Best Defence is a Strong Offense

by Defencewire

(November, 13, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Tigers have deployed a small team of fighters, probably around 15 to place the defence establishment in the defensive mode again in the Southern Province. True to its strategy of confusing politicians, the Tigers again launched several attacks in Thissamaharama and Yala in the last few days killing two farmers and one civilian driving a double-cap at Yala Katugamuwa area. The claymore mine attack on the vehicle killed the driver and wounded a 60 year-old man and a civilian engineer on Saturday. Sources indicate the team of LTTE cadres has come from Ampara where around 200 Tigers are shifting from place to place avoiding the STF.

Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka visited Yala Sunday and gave instructions to the Yala Joint Operations Command. He also met Rear Admiral Weerasekere and DIG Balasuriya who were touring the area the day before along with Basil Rajapakse. The Sri Lanka Army has stationed around 500 soldiers and appointed Brigadier Sudantha Ranasinghe as the head of the newly established Joint Operations Center in Yala. A recruitment drive is now on to enlist 200 men to the Civil Defence Force (Homeguards). 25 checkpoints have already been established in the area. The CDF has around 30,000 personnel already serving in the North and the East many of whom, due to their background coming from villages in rural areas, are ideal candidates to fill the ranks of the Special Forces.

With this latest redeployment of troops on a defensive role and recruitment of more men into the ranks of the CDF, the Army's new recruitment drive and overall strategy in the North will definitely be affected. The LTTE has managed to turn the offensive mentality of the country's leadership into a defensive mode through several small-scale attacks and ambushes in an area earmarked for development projects including an airport, harbour and tourism facilities. It is also the electoral/political constituency of President Rajapakse. The JHU and the JVP has again put pressure on the political and military leadership by highlighting the security dilemma of Sinhala farmers in the South.

If any lessons are to be learnt from previous experiences, it is that the LTTE is cleverly reading the minds of southern politicians and are effectively disrupting the strategy drawn up by the SLA to systematically destroy LTTE by committing large numbers of Tigers to the Northern FDLs with considerable deployment of own troops in an offensive role. Experience also tells us that guarding a large jungle area like Yala against 8-12 man teams is next to impossible. Yala is situated near Kumana, Vilpattu and Lahugala jungle reservations. These areas are difficult to police. This is the comparative advantage that SLA's LRRP operations have benefited from. The Tigers seem to have realized this situation and are now trying to turn it to their advantage. The attack on the Anuradhapura airbase also had similarities of an LTTE LRRP-type deployment in the deep battle space.

In recent months, the SLA had managed to continuously engage LTTE in the Vanni, killing a steady 10-15 tigers on most days. Villages in Adampan, Periyathampanai, Pandisurichchian, Kalmadu etc were systematically drained and small resettlements reestablished in government areas to facilitate the infiltrations and use of heavy weapons on Tiger positions. This however requires strategic focus and commitment to an offensive role.

Meanwhile the Special Task Force attacked a tractor carrying LTTE cadres in Rottana, Pottuvil adjacent to the Northern boundary of Yala Sunday evening killing three Tigers. SLA, whose major infiltrations into LTTE areas in Vavuniya and Mannar has been adversely affected by the torrential monsoonal rains, made several attempts to attack Tigers and succeeded in Adampan, Periyathampanai and Periyapandisurichchian in the last few days. Six bodies of female cadres recovered from the Periya Thampanai attack were handed over to the ICRC on Sunday to be transferred to the LTTE.

Meanwhile pro-LTTE media claimed outrage over the arrest of Tamil Nadu politicians Vaiko (MDMK) from Nedumaaran (TMM) in Chennai after they finished addressing a protest rally against the assassination of 'brigadier' Thamilselvan. No country in the International Community had expressed sorrow at his death. Earlier, LTTE's newly appointed Political Wing Leader Nadesan, in a meeting with the Norwegian peace Monitors had claimed that the LTTE strongly regretted this situation.