An Antonov 32 Sri Lanka Air Force air craft departed from the Ratmalana airport around 7 am to go to Jaffna with some senior officers. After few minutes of flying, the air craft landed at the Air Force military runway at Katunayake, adjoining the Bandaranaike International Air Port to pick up Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.

Commander Fonseka was at the playground adjoining the Army Headquarters to take a helicopter to Katunayake to board the Jaffna bound AN-32 aircraft. But the VIP helicopter of the Sri Lanka Air Force, carrying the Army Chief had to delay at least for thirty minutes, as its pilot informed that due to bad weather he was unable to take off the helicopter. After a delay of thirty minutes, the VIP helicopter reached the Katunayake military base and the Army Chief boarded the Russian made AN-32 aircraft.

Meanwhile, in Jaffna, a barrage of 130 mm artillery shells started to fall continuously around the Palaly High Security Zone, covering the areas of Mailaddy, Kankasanthurai and Palaly. The attack lasted for nearly thirty minutes. The military commanders were perplexed since they never expected such an attack at that time.

The entire peninsula was placed under full alert due to this sudden artillery attack. Action was taken immediately to inform the Army Headquarters, as well as the Ratmalana and Katunayake Air Force bases to stop Lt. Gen. Fonseka’s tour to Jaffna. The massage came just ten minutes prior to the departure of the AN-32 air craft carrying the Army Chief.

At the same time, Jaffna commander Major General Chandrasiri ordered his senior officers to retaliate targeting the LTTE gun positions.

Using sophisticated Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers (MBRL) and heavy artillery guns, the military launched a massive attack against the Tigers gun positions in the Kalmunai Point in Pooneryn, from where the Tigers had launched their attack. Kalmunai point is less than 30 aerial Kilometres away from Palaly and though the Tigers were unable to target the Palaly military runway, a 130 mm shell which can cover a range of 27 kilometres could fall anywhere near the runway. However, the Tiger artillery attack did not last long. They were attacking from sand dunes, on which they use tractors or other such vehicles to mount the artillery. After the attack the Tigers quickly withdrew them from the area with the artillery guns.

According to the military the Tigers had fired at least 18 shells towards the Palaly HSZ within a period of less than thirty minutes.

On receiving the news from Jaffna the Army Commander suspended his flight to Palaly and returned to his Colombo Headquarters.

It was clear that the target of the attack had been the Army Chief, since his arrival time had been around 8.45 am. Apart from causing harm to the Commander the Tigers through this attack also wanted to impress that they were well aware of the movements of the Army Commander and could harm him at any given moment. It also clearly shows that the Tigers were trying to boost the morale of their cadres by launching such an attack.

However, the defence hierarchy is very much concerned as to how highly confidential details, such as the movements of the Army Commander and area Commanders are being leaked to the Tamil Tigers.

They suspect t that there are still a number of military personnel serving in the armed forces providing such top-secret information to the Tigers for financial gains.

However, the LTTE played down their attack on the HSZ claiming that it was just a routine shelling. The LTTE military spokesman Rasiah Illentheriyan said: “It was no big deal and it was a routine exchange of shelling between government troops and the LTTE.”

If the Army Commander was in Jaffna, the Tigers would have intensified the attack and given it much publicity using pro-Tiger websites.

But the military is taking this attack seriously as this is the first such artillery attack since last year and the first attack since the air raid on the Palaly military base a few months ago.

It is not clear as yet whether the Tigers used the attack as a diversion in order to cover their continuous setbacks since the take over of the eastern region by the army.

Meanwhile, intelligence services had warned Jaffna Security forces Commander Major General Chandrasiri that the Tigers are targeting him since his command in the Peninsula had led to a major setback to LTTE activities and violence in the peninsula. Their eagerness to get rid of him has intensified after Major General Chandrasiri narrowly escaped an artillery attack last week, as he delayed his filed visit to outside the Palaly HSZ.

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