Is the tide turning against the LTTE?

In a bid to cut off theTamil Tiger rebels main supply lines, the Sri Lanka Navy has intensified surveillance operations in and around the island’s territorial waters in order to block efforts by the guerrillas to smuggle in military hardware, fuel and other items essential to the LTTE controlled areas. The Navy believes that and by cutting off the supply lines of the Tigers the organization would be weakened and unable to continue their armed struggle in time to come.

Naval sources indicated that last Sunday could be seen as a turning point in the ongoing Eelam War IV where the Sri Lanka Navy destroyed a 70-meter LTTE cargo vessel carrying arms and ammunition to the guerillas, 850 nautical miles south east of Dondra Head. The Navy believes that the ship in question, operating under the name of “Matsushima” was the last vessel of the Tiger fleet. The Navy claims to have destroyed seven LTTE vessels during the past ten months and has gradually crippled their international maritime terrorism operations.

The Navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake told The Sunday Times even though the navy destroyed what is believed to be the final ship in the LTTE fleet, it did not mean that it would completely halt the rebels attempts to smuggle arms into the country. He said they were capable of purchasing or hiring new ships to smuggle in weapons.

“They have enough money to buy a ship even today, but according to our intelligence, this is their last known arms ship,” Commander Dassanayake said.

On Saturday October 6 around 1 a.m. the Navy ships detected the suspicious vessel on its radar 650 nautical miles southeast off Dondra Head.The SLN ship which has blue water capability (to cover wide ocean terrain) picked up a signal on its radar of a suspicious 70-meter-long vessel which was traveling at a speed of six nautical miles, coming from the direction of Indonesia and moving toward Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which stretches up to 200nautical miles.

The Navy had previously gathered valuable information regarding the suspect ship from international sources as well as through the interrogation of Sea Tiger cadres now in the custody of the Sri Lanka Navy, Indian authorities and the Maldivian authorities.

A senior naval officer who spoke to The Sunday Times on grounds of anonymity said they were aware of the exact shape, size and colour of the ship obtained after interrogating the Sea Tiger cadres and LTTE operatives who had been involved in gunrunning operations of the guerrillas for sometime.

The navy had even gathered intelligence of the location and even GPS co-ordinace of the ship which made the task of detecting the Matsushima easier. The Sunday Times learns that some of the LTTE operatives who were in custody had also sketched particular ships which matched previous LTTE ships which were destroyed by the Navy.

Matsushima is one such ship an LTTE operative in custody had depicted in penciled shetch while being interrogated in a navy cell. The drawing and details given to the Navy by the LTTE operative was accurate and had tallied with the description and co-ordinace of Matsushima. These were details which the Navy had been waiting for.

The Naval fleet comprising the navy’s Off Shore Patrol Vessels ‘SLNS Sayura’, ‘SLNS Sagara’, Fast Attack Vessel ‘SLNS Suranimila, auxiliary vessels A-520 and A-521 sailed for the mission a week before Matsushima was sunk anticipating her appearance in accordance with intelligence gathered.

During the wee hours of Saturday a naval officer in the control room discovered that a suspicious ship in Sumatran waters which was gathering speed did not have an International Maritime Organisation Registration Number or a national flag to identify the origin of the vessel.

The SLN ship had then communicated with the suspicious vessel through maritime frequency channel “16”and had asked the person in the control room of the Matsushima to identify herself. At first there was no response. The names of the crew, captain, agents, next port of call and last port of call was asked by the navy. The Matsushima had then responded to all the questions asked by the navy.

The Navy had immediately contacted the two ports of call to confirm the details given. It was then revealed to the navy that they were dealing with a rogue ship which was later revealed to be an LTTE cargo vessel carrying arms. Navy’s Off-shore Patrol Vessel ‘SLNS Sayura’ chased the suspected rebel ship for one and a half days until it finally spotted her during the early hours of Sunday on October 7.

The Sayura is reported to have fired warning shots after the Matsushima disobeyed the navy’s order to halt the ship. The panic stricken crew had then fired rocket propelled grenades and small caliber weapons. Upon this the Sayura had then fired back at the ship and had destroyed her on Sunday at 8.45 am Sri Lanka time in the Sumatran waters.

Fifteen rebels were suspected to have been killed in the attack on the Matsushima. According to naval intelligence the suspected arms ship was carrying military equipment including communication sets, radar equipment, high powered outboard motors, jet skis, high-speed water scooters, swimming delivery items and a stock of artillery rounds.

The destruction of Matsushima goes down in Sri Lanka’s naval history as the most far-flung battle in the navy’s history. This was the second time the Sri Lanka Navy had taken the battle to the Sumatran waters. The destroying of Matsushima comes in the backdrop of the Sri Lanka Navy intercepting and destroying three cargo vessels of the LTTE which were also detected 600 nautical miles south east from Dondra Head on September 10-11. The interception-destruction of the ships Manyoshi, Kyoshi and Seshin was the first time the Sri Lanka Navy took the battle to the Sumatran waters on September 10.

Two major factors contributing to the recent successes of the navy were the credible intelligence information of the modus operandi of logistics movements of the LTTE and . the other was the meticulous planning by the Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and his senior officers.