- Each ‘flying bomb’ carried 210 kgs of plastic explosives.
- Low flying Tigers evaded F7 interceptors.
With the area under LTTE control now down to approximately 70 sq. km in the Mullaitivu District, some of the fighting formations have suspended offensive action leaving three Divisions and one Task Force to finish off the Tigers.
[ad#200×200]Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara yesterday said that 57 and 59 Divisions and three Task Forces (TF II, TF III and TF 8) would engage in clearing operations in newly liberated areas while 55, 58 and 53 Divisions and TF IV would continue the offensive.
Addressing a special press conference at the Media Centre for National Security, he said that 55 Division was directing operations south of Chalai while three other formations were advancing on the enemy’s last bastion at Puthukudirippu.
He said that there was no room for all nine fighting formations to engage in offensive actions on the eastern flank.
At the time the armed forces launched operations in early September, 2006, the LTTE had controlled approximately 15,000 sq. km in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
The army spearheaded President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war on terror campaign to bring the Tigers to their knees in just two and a half years.
Among the items recovered by the army, particularly the 58 Division commanded by Brigadier Shavindra Silva are eight themo-baric weapons, ten 120 mm mortars, twelve 81 mm mortars, two 152 mm artillery pieces and two 130 mm artillery pieces.
He estimated the number of civilians trapped in the battle zone including the area declared as a safe zone on the Mullaitivu coast at 70,000. He said that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operated by the SLAF had observed large groups of people in the safe zone recently declared by the government.