Sunday, July 13, 2008

NEWS BRIEF: TROOPS CLOSE IN ON VIDATTALTIVU


5 Terrorist Bodies Recovered by 58 Division

Pitch battles between the troops of 58 Division, now located 2KM south of Vidattaltivu and the LTTE are in progress. The elite 58 Division troops, who have now reached the perimeter of Vidattaltivu and the 57 Divison which are moving westward from Periyamadhu area are effectively surrounding the Vidattaltivu base.

The flank attack by the 57 Division has met fierce resistance by the LTTE. The army has effectively attacked enemy strong points on July 13 killing around 7 terrorists. 5 bodies of LTTE cadres have been recovered and are in the process of being tagged and transferred to the ICRC.

The 58 Division is now within striking distance from Vidattaltivu and Army DPU teams have effectively engaged the LTTE well forward of the current FDL's. These 'deep space' attacks have ensured that whole region has been made inconducive for Tiger logistical operations.

7 comments:

onceinawhile said...

Earlier there was some reports saying that LTTE has already started withdrawing from viduthaltiv. Is it actualy the case? If so how come they are puting up stiff resistance as you put it?

GroundZeroLanka said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GroundZeroLanka said...

Onceinawile -

The tigers have withdrawn all of their logistical support elements (vehicles, field hospital materials, administrative items), heavy armaments and weapons. The base is within Army heavy support weapons such as mortars and field artillery as such the tigers will not keep their assets in the base - they are being withdrawn.

However, the tigers have not withdrawn their manpower, nor walked away from the base in a withdrawl. Their is a calculated effort to defend the base. This could be simiply a delaying tactic to permit them to remove all assets from the area. They have inducted over 200 Cadre to engage army commando units.

With all this effort, we expect the base to fall within the next weeks if not days.

This morning 57 Division captured parts of the A32 close to Vidattltivu town.

onceinawhile said...

GZL thanks.

In my belief the more they resist and try to defend viduthalthive it would be good for SLA, since it will allow SLA to kill maximum number of tigers. Is there any chance of our UAVs being used to spot the heavy weapons that are being moved and attacked using MI-24s?

Vibe said...

GroundZeroLanka, what's next for the Task Force 1 after viduthaltiv?

GroundZeroLanka said...

Vibe - TFI will need to remain on the western sector of Mannar and move along the A32. They will need to protect the 'tip of the spear' which is 57 Division from a sea borne landing by the tigers or flank attack.

I will post on the next strategic imperatives soon.

Vibe said...

Thanks for the info :)

Looking forward to your next post.