Nearly three weeks after the defeat of the LTTE, troops conducting mop up operations in the newly liberated areas of the Wanni, have been uncovering massive hauls of arms and ammunition of the guerrillas.

Military officials said government intelligence agencies and the defence establishment are probing as to how the LTTE smuggled such large hauls of arms into the country and are hoping to identify those responsible for supplying military hardware to a proscribed terrorist organization.

Night vision equipment recovered recently

Weapons recovered from 10 LTTE cadres killed in Trinco last week

According to intelligence reports it has now transpired that the LTTE was procuring arms and military hardware from foreign sources including private gun runners and even other global terrorist organizations.

To purchase these weapons, the LTTE raised funds from charity organizations that were working as LTTE fronts in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and European Union countries.

The government is planning to seek the assistance of several foreign investigation bodies to trace the source of these weapons.

During the final phase of Eelam War IV, troops had uncovered sophisticated Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers, heavy artillery, light aircraft, sophisticated communications equipment, radars, Surface-to-Air (SAM) missiles, large caches of assault rifles and multi purpose machine guns.

Most of these ammunition dumps had been concealed and buried underground. A few were found in underground air conditioned concrete bunkers that were lined with polythene and secured by steel doors.

During search operations in Vishwamadu, Puthukkudiyirippu and Kilinochchi on Thursday, the military recovered 74 hand grenades, three Out Board Motors, massive amounts of booby traps made by the guerrillas using VCD players, nine improvised bombs, four magnetic bombs, two 60 mm illuminating bombs, 50g of TNT explosives, one kg of C4 explosives and one iron plate.

On the same day in Trincomalee and Batticaloa troops recovered claymore mines, detonators and several 9mm and T-56 ammunition, while the STF which carried out a search operation in Ampara recovered massive amounts of ammunition.

LTTE weapons: Key finds of 2009

January 29 - Infantrymen of the 10th Gajaba Regiment capture a 152 mm artillery gun Northeast of Vishwamadu.

January 28 - Sri Lanka Army Task Force 3 finds an LTTE underwater vehicle along with 3 other smaller underwater vehicles still under construction from the Udayarkattukulam area in Mullaitivu

February 27 - State of the art LTTE satellite communication equipment recovered by troops operating west of Puthukkudiyirripu.

March 11- Troops recover LTTE aircraft body and parts in a search operation in Puthukkudiyirippu

April 14 - Troops recover four surface- to- air missiles (SAM) hidden by retreating LTTE cadres east of Puthukkudiyirippu.

May 13 – 58 Division troops recover LTTE’s improvised Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) in Kariyamullivaikkal.

May 17- Three LTTE anti-air craft guns and a battle tank recovered in Puthumatalan.