SLA suffers heavy casualties in Chilawatte general area

By Mahen
The LTTE’s side of the Wanni battle

(January 17, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) SLA troopers who are attempting to advance towards Chilawatte have been beaten back by the LTTE fighting formations. There are reports of heavy casualties flowing into Anuradhapuram Hospital, the hospital wards are at full capacity and the SLA has been forced to move several seriously injured SLA men to the main Colombo Hospital. SLAF attempted to provide close air support (CAS) using Mi-24 gunships to the SLA, however, the gunships were forced to abandon their missions in the face of intense and coordinated AA fire. The gunships unable to withstand AA fire later returned to base leaving SLA units exposed to HMG and mortar fire.

The SLA has claimed occupation of the entire Ira’naimadu tank, our Wanni sources report that this is a completely false claim. The SLA has only occupied the northern part of the tank which holds the sluice gate. The LTTE is firmly in control of the western part of the tank and boat squadrons are actively engaging the enemy. As reported earlier, LTTE has well fortified defences in Chalai.

The President Rajapaksha is today reported to be attending a Bar Association meeting in the hill city of Kandy. Source has told the writer that the meeting was disrupted several times by urgent phone calls from Colombo who were relaying various ultimatums from the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary.

Political sources believe that obbying by LTTE diplomats based abroad are bearing fruit. On the battlefield, the LTTE is regaining momentum after the earlier reported leadership conflicts were amicably resolved. - Sri Lanka Guardian