Saturday 8 March 2008

The Siege of Adampan

Mannar6 copy

Adampan (Attampana) village is situated in the Manthai West Assistant GA Division in the Mannar district and falls within the Mannar rice bowl hence making it a farming village. Adampan, since the advent of Eelam war I has bared the brunt of conflict between Government forces and the the Tamil Tigers in securing the coastal areas surrounding Mannar.

Lt. Gen Kobbekaduwa during Eelam war II carried out a series of operations on the backdrop of severe threats posed to SLA bases at SILAVATHURAI, KOKKUPADAYAN. The main objective was to interdict Tiger supply lines along the Mannar coast that were smuggling much needed supplies into Wanni hideouts. Operation Tiger chase was launched as a result in the general area of ADAMPAN, ARIPPU and PARAPPAKADANTHAN areas of Mannar. This was supported by subsequent operations to clear up fleeing Tiger cadres code named Operation Brush up. This focused mainly along the A20/A14 West of VAVUNIYA.

Since the success of General Kobbekaduwa, due to successive policy shifts brought about by successive elected governments, the areas fell to the Tamil Tigers during the period of 1991 to 1997. The same area at least the South of it came within the cross hairs of the military again only in February 1997 when Operation Edibala was launched by the 53 Division led by Brig Vasantha Perera and Brig Nanda Mallawarachchi. The aim was to capture the A14 plying from POOVARASANKULAM To MANNAR. This was a prerequisite to the lengthy Jayasikurui campaign.

Coming onto Eelamwar IV with the loss of vast swathes of the Eastern shores, and the permanent naval blockade by the SLN along the VETTILEIKERNI - KOKKUTUDUVAI coast, the Western coast running from MANNAR to POONERYN has become the sole supply route of the Tamil Tigers. From the SLA's point of view with the MSR A9 from OMANTHAI to MUHAMALE being out of bounds, the A32 from Illupaikaduwai, Pooneryn to Jaffna across the Sangupiddy ferry runs an ideal prospect of being an alternative till the A9 is liberated from Omanthai to Muhamale. The added advantage of the A32 is unlike the A9 the A32 route needs to be defended from only one flank (East). If this is to be achieved, the Western coast becomes equally valuable to the SLA as it is to the Tamil Tigers. The third dimension is the added advantage to India. With the great majority of refugee influx originating from this same coastal belt it can seriously reduce the number of refugee influx to Tamil Nadu. The fourth added benefit is for the SLN where the shallow waters of the Mannar basin hampers its Super Dvora FACs operating, making only the lightly armoured IPC waterjets operate to interdict Tamil Tiger smuggling activities. Thus securing this coastal stretch will significantly reduce the threats posed to SLN waterjets and its personnel from superior if not swarming fleets of Sea Tigers.

This is the backdrop for the battles for Adampan and its surroundings.

The first major thrust took place on December 1st 2007 when MANTHAI north of ADAMPAN was captured. This came as a surprise to the Tamil Tigers stationed at ADAMPAN since they expected the thrust to come about from PALLIKULLI located South of ADAMPAN. Seeing the overall plan of SLA to circumvent ADAMPAN the Tamil Tigers launched a fierce counter attack as early as the next day to no avail. Backed by the lack of preparedness of the LTTE, 582 brigade made further inroads on the 11th of December 2007 capturing NARIKKULAM and on the 27th December, strong points of CHETTUKKULAM (9GW), close to ADAMPAN junction. Further limited operations were carried out intermittently bringing the road joining CHETTUKKULAM and THIRUKETHISWARAM under control. Currently they are holding positions just under 1Km from the ADAMPAN junction (just ahead of CHETTUKKULAM).

The second major thrust took place South of ADAMPAN on 22nd of December 2007 when 581 brigade (10 GR) took on the UYILANKULAM road block of the Tamil Tigers. After securing the UYILANKULAM area 581 brigade troops tactically moved along the Giant's tank bund with one flank to defend. 8 GW troops of 581 Brigade reached SINNAODAIPPU sluice gates and its adjacent areas north of GIANT TANK by 28th February 2008.

While the 581 brigade was moving North of Giant's tank troops attached to 583 brigade - 6 GW and 9 GW made their thrust towards PALLAKULLI capturing VIYATTANKULAM in the general area of VANNANKULAM on 29th of January 2008. Just a week later on the 8th of February 2008, 8 SR of 583 ensured the fall of the South of the now defunct ADAMPAN tank.

On the back of a diversionary move by 583 brigade, troops of 581 captured the all important ANDANKULAM junction on the 4th of March 2008 bringing the UYILANKULAM-ANDANKULAM road under government control. This is of significant strategic value since the road east of the junction continues up to the Madhu church.

With these developments 581 brigade at the time of posting are positioned under 1 Km East of ADAMPAN at MANTHOTTI and NEDUNKANDAL with a firmly secured ANDANKULAM junction while 583 brigade are stationed at the newly captured PARAPPAKANDAL town. This is roughly 1Km from ADAMPAN.

With this status quo the next step would be 581 and 582 to initiate movements towards ADAMPAN junction, linking up in the process and completely securing the stretch of road plying from ANDANKULAM to THIRUKETHISWARAM. This also means that ADAMPAN town is 'boxed' in as the map suggests bringing the town and its vast surrounding area of the Mannar rice bowl to the hands of the military. Once the town is strangulated by the two pincers (581, 582), 583 brigade can be expected to make its entry into the town centre.

The network of tanks and irrigation systems in this area has made paddy farming the primary source of livelihood for its inhabitants. This rice bowl also means the area is open terrain, ideal for snipers and indirect fire support. At the area North of this green belt - roughly located at the VAUNIYA-MANNAR border - jungle terrain begins. These jungles are known to continue up to the suburbs of KILINOCHCHI. With roughly 50 SqKms under its belt, once the 58 division manages to secure remaining rice bowl, it can seriously dent the Tamil Tigers' fire support brigades which long has been a nemesis for advancing troops.

With the ADAMPAN box firmly within its grasp, the SLA has the opportunity of joining the all important A32:

  1. From North of ADAMPAN junction via MULLIKANDAL and MINUKKAN towards PAPPAMODDAI
  2. From North of ANDANKULAM junction via KANNADI and PARAPPUKADANTHAN west
  3. From North of THIRUKETHISWARAM via PAPPAMODAI

Whatever the option SLA takes, it will not be welcome news to the Tamil Tigers. With the supply sea routes fast shrinking with its overseas arms network in close scrutiny than never before, it will attempt to defend its sea bases tooth and nail. One such base of particular interest to the SLA is VIDULAITIVU, notorious for its sea smuggling operations conducted to and from Tamil Nadu safe houses. Unfortunately for the Tamil Tigers this base lies in close proximity to the A32 making any siege against the sea base fall perfectly in line with SLA's long term goals.

28 comments:

SnakeVI said...

thanks for the great article mate!
answered a lot of questions i have been having. keep up the good work.
cheers

Nandimithra said...

Long Ranger,
Thanks a lot giving us a superb update. This is the kind of stuff we are waitng to read.
We can wait with hope that fall of adampen will happen sooner than we think.

hemantha said...

Excellent job mate. Expect more from you in the future. Good luck.

Unknown said...

Long-Ranger,

Nicely done and thanks. Are you also go by handle name specialforce?

TheTruth said...

Thanks ranger, great analysis, and the other articles are very informative.
Thanks again for your hard work.

TropicalStorm said...

Great article.

More maps please. There is a lot of information on the net regarding military ops, but very few maps describing where it is all happening and the relevant threat levels to the prime targets of K'chchi, E'pass, Mullaitivu etc. Descriptions and distances would be very useful as well.

Long - Ranger said...

Snakevi, nandimithra, hemantha, blackhawk,

You all are welcome.

Glad to be of help :-)

eranda,

I have not participated in any other online forums/portals. My daily time allowance is limited for such activity. Hope you understand :-)

tropicalstorm,

Definitely, depends on my work reaching a plateau. Unlike other web portals, I do not have the luxury of a 'team'. I work solo, hence time restrictions. :-)

Take care all.

CASC said...

LONG rANGER ,

Excellent article and nice analysis

Thank you

LKDOOD said...

@Long-Ranger

keep up the good work :)

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

if this is true then howcome fighting at parappakandal? isnt it south of parappakandal? which means the LTTE are biting from the back haha.

how gullible are you lot?

Kohona said...

sorry i meant to say south of Adampan.

you have already sinhalised Adampan to Attampana. That is so wrong.

Unknown said...

Thanks for a great article Ranger.
You seem to be on the horn for some time. Please write more frequently (time permmiting), keep up the good work. And yes, more maps would help.

boots on the ground have their work cut out for them! good luck boys.

Unknown said...

Sivarassaiah,

It is the Sinahala word Attampana that has been tamilinized. The Sinhala word Attampana has it's own meaning.Can you find the meaning for Adampan in Tamil? You can't men, as it was originally a Sinhala word.

Most of the names of the palces and villages in North and East had sinahala names as the original inhabitants there were Sinhalease.

A Tamil scholer in 1930's published a book on this subject. He says in his book that Tamils can never claim a single place in NE as their orginal inhabitant places as all of them were ealier inhabited by Sinhalese. He proves his argument by citing many examples- most of the Tamil names of the places are curruptions of Sinahala names.

The fate of the said book is mysterieous as only a few copies now avilable even though It had a fairly good number of copies. The book lays bare the biggest lie of the histoty-"Tamil Homeland" which had never ever existed.

Kohona said...

pina,

what book are you on about? names?

dont bother if you cant find it, cos it aint in existence.

ok, even if it was sinhalese who lived their before, whats wrong in making our own names? i mean the whiteman named colombo your capital and once the whiteman created your country you named it your own language's colaba. whats soo wrong in that?
You cant rename places where the majority are tamil. That further alienates them.

bodhi Dhana said...

The sinhala names for Tamilized
names of the North and East are given in the website
http://www.geocities.com/
place.names/index,html


This is a collection based on the research of a number of Sri Lankan University people.

Unknown said...

Thanks bodhi_dhana

Sivarassaiah,

Then, your homeland is in Tamilnadu!

cha said...

Great Article & Great Maps...
As for Siva.... May be he'll explain how Kotahena became Kotahenai and Matale became Matelai...

We'll make every wrong right, just a matter of time.

http://www.geocities.com/
place.names/index,html

Kohona said...

Pina,

im still waiting for your source mate.

Channa,

exactly my point, theres a sizeable Tamil population at Kotahena so it can be called kotahenei. Now dont be so fanciful and make up Matalei.

If the army wasn't involved in displacing every walking life in the North and East and leaving them no choice other than coming down South and settling this will not stop. Leave the Tamils alone in North and East and you will have your kotahena back. Deal?

Unknown said...

Sivarassaiah,

Yalpana Vaibhava Kaumudi by K. Velu Pillai

"Leave the Tamils alone in North and East"

Are you kidding or day dreaming or you are mistaken NE is in Tamilnadu?

Kohona said...

pina,

a book by vellu pillai, now that is funny.

but all these name etymologies doesnt explain tamil artefacts in the north and east. Thats why the government burnt down the Jaffna library because you lot were scared of the litrature in the library. Now its all gone.

FCSAT said...

Check this out,A blog about SL politics
http://hrblogonsrilanka.blogspot.com

cha said...

Siva..,
No deal;
The job's in the military hands and no looking back.
you think Matalai was imagined and fanciful?? Check these links ... these are "your own - make up history as you go along" Tamil web-clips.
http://www.tchr.net/reports_visite_2004.htm
http://frontline.in/fl1926/stories/20030103006213400.htm

It's Tamil Nadu or bust for you mate..
C

Unknown said...

Sivarassaiah,

When there is a credible evidance its funny for you guys.But the biggest lie- "Historical Homeland for Tamils" is the ultimate truth. That's the funiest joke we have been given chance to watch for qiute a some time.

"tamil artefacts"? Agin man are you kidding?What artifacts? All the evedance found in literature, cronicles or etymological evidances are corobarated by the Buddhist archiolgical sites strewn all across the NE men.They still remain intact for a certain extent even though they have been subjected to a lot of vanton destructions to destroy the evidances.

Jaffna libraray contained a load of books rewritten with a bogus history to prove the biggest lie in the mordern history-"Historical Homeland for Tamils"Are they the artifacts you are talking about?

onceinawhile said...

Exceptional work Long ranger. Keep it up!

Jay Ramen said...
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Jay Ramen said...

Wow...Great article as always Long Ranger...You should really consider joining the Armed forces!

Shan said...

Long Ranger

I am avid reader of your blog but never comment, but now is the right moment 'cause of the relevance of your write up and what is unfolding in Adampan.
You offered two options two link up with A 32 - which do you think is a bteer option given the current situ. PARAPPUKADANTHAN west or Pappamoddai?
I read on DN or DW that the military would march northwards than east..