Biggest, bloodiest Lankan operation

The biggest military offensive launched by the Sri Lankan security forces six months ago to capture a strategic highway in the north has become the ''longest march'' for the soldiers and the bloodiest in the 14-year-old conflict, say analysts.

When 'Operation Jayasikuru' (sure victory) was launched on May 13, it was billed as the last of the major offensives against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The aim of the offensive was to capture the strategic Vavuniya-Killinochchi highway, a stretch of about 70 km passing mostly through jungle terrain.

The operation was supposed to be a ''cakewalk'', but is turning out to be the biggest stalemate in this long-drawn-out war of attrition. So far the troops have advanced just about 20 km along the highway in the face of heavy resistance by the rebels.

Already, more than 815 soldiers have died and thousands wounded, making the offensive the worst in terms of casualties in any single operation.

The LTTE, too, has suffered thousands of casualties. Last week alone, the two sides claimed to have decimated over 500 combatants of the other.

As the troops found their advance virtually halted at the heavily fortified township of Puliyankulam, 20 km from the starting point, the military authorities adopted counter-strategies to skirt the town and resume the advance.

They linked up with another column of troops which had advanced along an easterly direction and locked two access roads to Mullaitivu, the LTTE's last major stronghold and its political headquarters.

The move was intended to stop the supplies of food and medicines reaching the cadres, fighting the troops along the highway.

However, the strategy boomeranged when the rebels, showing uncanny anticipation, over-ran two large field arms and ammunition depots and trapped an unspecified number of troops, cutting off supplies to them.

The LTTE claimed it captured arms, ammunition and an assortment of vehicles, including two armoured personnel carriers, last week. The estimated value of the captured items is more than Rs 100 million.

The military has not referred to the loss in its daily communiques so far, but a senior official said reinforcement columns were already advancing to link up with their besieged colleagues.

The analysts said with the north-east monsoon already setting in over the region, the troops's advance would now further slow down, if not abandoned at least temporarily.

The delay in securing the highway, which links the north Jaffna peninsula beyond Killinochchi, would continue to prove a big drag on the national economy, already saddled with the mounting defence expenditure, they said.

They noted that so long as the highway remained under the rebels's control, the government would have to maintain all supplies to the peninsula by sea and air.

UNI

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