Article

2009-05-09 Sri Lanka

'Sri Lankan troops break more rebel defences'

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2009-05-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 damn how long is it gonna take them too take this final small strip of land and what do they consider small, they been on the brink of winning for months now

Posted by rabid whitetail 2009-05-09 10:02|| 2009-05-09 10:02|| Front Page Top

#2 They can't just stomp them flat because of the human shields. The Tigers keep hoping against hope that Norway or Britain or India or the UN will pull their snarglies from the fire.

Posted by Fred 2009-05-09 11:31|| 2009-05-09 11:31|| Front Page Top

#3 Try taking a defense line with no artillery or mortars. Takes a long time to shoot the guys one by one when you could just blast them to smithereens.

The Tigers, by contrast, are freely using every weapon in their arsenal, and deploying thickets of claymores and other mines all over their defense obstacles. They've also got a good supply of suicide bombers, which they send against the army regularly.

Posted by gromky 2009-05-09 12:06|| 2009-05-09 12:06|| Front Page Top

#4 If you look at the battle map provided by Sri Lanka Map, you'll see that the piece of land the two sides are fighting over is about 3/4 of a mile wide and three-four miles long. It's surrounded on one side by the Nanthi Kadal lagoon, and on another by the Indian Ocean. There's a break in the land where the lagoon and the ocean are connected, just north of Mullaitivu. The actual "front" is about 3/4 of a mile wide.

With the land surrounded on three sides by water, the Sri Lanka government has positioned its troops to block the LTTE from escaping in boats. The 59th Division holds the town of Mullaitivu, and prevents the LTTE from escaping to the south. There are three task forces (TF2, 3, and 4) holding the western bank of the lagoon and the jungle behind it. The Sri Lanka Navy is patrolling the Indian Ocean east of the "No Fire Zone". Three Sri Lankan divisions (53, 55, and 58) and TF8 are attacking from the north.

The LTTE hold two small villages in the no-fire zone. From Google Earth, the land is relatively flat, with dozens of clumps of trees among the many fields. Most of the people live along the major highway running through the area, Route A35.

The LTTE can't escape by sea, and can't carry any heavy weapons across the lagoon. Without heavy weapons, they would be crushed by the Sri Lanka Army in a matter of hours. They can't move south because the 59th Division is holding the southern end of the only bridge across the drain from the Nanthi Kadal lagoon. They're slowly being forced back into a smaller and smaller area. Pretty soon one 500-lb bomb would take out the remaining LTTE cadres. Unfortunately there are 20-30,000 refugees being held hostage in the same area as the LTTE. That means it's going to take awhile to end the war, because the Sri Lankan Army has to kill each LTTE cadre one at a time.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2009-05-09 12:53|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2009-05-09 12:53|| Front Page Top

#5 OOPS! Battle map link here.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2009-05-09 12:54|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2009-05-09 12:54|| Front Page Top

#6 The SLA is probably holding off until the Indian elections are over. They will not want to inflame sentiment in Tamil Nadu further.

Posted by john frum 2009-05-09 13:22|| 2009-05-09 13:22|| Front Page Top

#7 Good explanation here, and interesting that the LTTE seems wholly besieged. There've been no reports of diversionary actions, or even terror elsewhere (though don't quite know what to make of the attack on the SL cricket team in Pakistan).

The SL govt. and military have done a fabulous job of containing the advance and sweeping all in front of them.

As J. Frum notes, they even seem to be managing the political aspects - both with an eye to Tamil Nadu and by co-opting local Tamils and former tigers into the govt..

Nonetheless, a horrible 26+ year lesson for all concerned.

Posted by Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2009-05-09 14:26|| 2009-05-09 14:26|| Front Page Top

#8 A little background on the reason for a large Tamil population in Sri Lanka:

The British imported millions of Tamil coolies into Ceylon to work the tea plantations. The British planters actually were opposed to public health planning around 1900 because they could just import more workers to replace those who dropped dead. The planters resisted any attempts by the British Govt to improve living conditions.

Finally, Victor Heiser and other staff from the Rockefeller Foundation proved to the planters that building privies and improving sanitation would be cost effective because healthy workers could produce more than sick ones. See Victor Heiser's "An American Doctor's Odyssey," published 1936, maybe in the basement of your public library stacks.

Thanks, previous posters, for your explanations of tactics.

Posted by mom">mom 2009-05-09 16:58|| 2009-05-09 16:58|| Front Page Top

23:33 OldSpook
23:32 OldSpook
22:21 Frank G
22:15 CrazyFool
22:14 Penguin
21:24 Zorba Craising6734
20:36 hammerhead
19:49 Frank G
19:48 tipover
19:32 Besoeker
19:30 Besoeker
19:29 tipover
19:24 Besoeker
19:18 Anonymoose
19:14 Anonymoose
19:12 Albemarle Speger6024
19:10 Lumpy Snomotle3307
19:09 Anonymoose
19:07 john frum
19:03 Frank G
18:45 vienniand
18:45 morShaffrof
18:44 Broadhead6
18:41 Frank G