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Lieutenant General
Sarath Fonseka |
Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka in a recent interview ( Sunday Observer 30th) has stated "that the LTTE could not prevent losing their remaining 3000 cadres and there is no assurance that the LTTE Leader V. Prabhakaran would survive for the next six months as the Sri Lanka Air Force plans to attack all the LTTE bases ". He has said that the "Security Forces have occupied the LTTE's Forward Defense Lines and surrounded the Wanni LTTE bases from all directions. The Commander of the Army told the "Sunday Observer": "Our daily target is to kill at least ten LTTE terrorists and for the last few months over 500 LTTE cadres have been killed by the armed forces. We have weakened the LTTE by 50 per cent or more and we are confident we can go that extra mile in the coming year". He stated the President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Ministry of Defence has given " the correct directives and the support" which has "helped the military to achieve set targets". He reiterated that the President has stated clearly that "terrorism " should be "wiped out" and would bring about "political solutions to address the problems of the Tamil people". The Commander of the Army pointed out that the "major camps" of the terrorists "have already fallen " and the "outfit is facing a severe shortage of manpower" and "it is evident that the outfit is in total disarray ".
The Security Forces has had unprecedented support from the people of all communities as they believe that terrorism has to be eliminated for the progress of Sri Lanka .and Public support for President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Security Forces has been well demonstrated . A new era of hope to eliminate terrorism has encouraged public support for the Armed services. The Secretary Defense Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told the "Sunday Observer" (30) referring to recruitment of manpower to the Armed services that "only last week , the period given to them to return , over 4000 deserters have come back " and the former soldiers who left the Army after serving 12 years have also re-joined " which is because "they know that the operations are going ahead successfully and the government has given a clear target". The Defence Secretary stated that: " We have launched very successful recruitment campaigns and recruited nearly 50,000 for the three services including 10,000 for the police and over 20,000 for the Civil Defence Force". The massive recruitment has resulted in the establishment of two new Divisions, the 57 and the 58 (Task Force -1) based in the Mannar sector. The new 59th Division is scheduled to be established early 2008 providing extra muscle to the Army .
The LTTE has also been severely handicapped by operations conducted by the Sri Lanka Navy to prevent LTTE gun running this year by destroying seven LTTE smuggling vessels described as "floating warehouses" . The first was on 28th February 2007 around 11.00 am when the Navy destroyed the LTTE floating "ware house" identified as the 75 meter long "Kiyoi" 185 nautical miles off Dondra Head carrying a cargo of 152mm, 130mm and 120mm artillery guns and shells , missiles, aircraft parts and other military hardware. Two unidentified LTTE weapons, explosives and military hardware carrying vessels were destroyed by the Navy on 18th of March off Arugam Bay on the Eastern coast once again attempting to smuggle military hardware . The greatest losses within 48 hours experienced by the LTTE was when three of their smuggling vessels carrying military hardware identified as the "Manyoshi", "Koyoshi"and "Shezin" were destroyed off Dondra head on the 10th and 11th of September while the "Matsushima" was destroyed on 7th October 2007. The destruction of these Tiger smuggling vessels were over 40 - 50 meters in length while the last was over 70 meters. They were vessels used to smuggle sophisticated heavy weapons including 120mm, 130mm artillery with anti aircraft capability, sophisticated diving and communication equipment as water scooters, high speed boats , diving gear , shells, ammunition, communication equipment and electronic systems etc. These losses have deprived the LTTE of much needed "fighting" material as their stocks according to Intelligence reports were running dangerously low.
On December 26th , 40 Sea Tigers were reported killed by the Navy off Delft island and 11 boats were destroyed including two Sea Tiger suicide boats. Meanwhile, a large stock of military items including over 2600 anti-personnel mines have been recovered by troops in search operations conducted in the Wanni area. The terrorists have lost over 2000 dead this year reducing their fighting capability to new a new "low" with the added problems of depleting stocks of ammunition, military hardware and "fighters" . The organization has also lost most of the "experienced fighters" and "middle level" leaders.
The Air Force has provided aggressive close air support to the Navy and ground troops in the field . They have successfully hit LTTE training camps and meeting places of leaders based on accurate and corroborated intelligence and observation picking out leaders as the LTTE Spokesman and even targeting the LTTE leader who is reportedly confined to a "bunker" as Hitler was during World War 11. The LTTE has issued a warning to all leaders to be vigilant regarding their movements as they are uncertain and suspicious of information leaking.
The cooperation provided by all communities especially by members of their own Tamil community detrimental to the LTTE has enabled Troops to recover large stocks of weapons, explosives, Anti- personnel mines as well as valuable intelligence . Earlier the LTTE used the "Gun" effectively to subjugate people which is not possible today as they realize that the LTTE has brought only misery to them after over two decades of fighting. The Top US Commander of the US led Multi- National Forces has stated on his recent visit to meet Troops in Iraq during Christmas referring to the Al- Qaeda and US success especially in the Anbar province that "they, know that if the local people turn against them like in the Anbar province success is certain".
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