Sri Lankan Forces Scores A Direct Hit on Terrorists Arms Supply Ship

The Navy and the Air Force successfully engaged on Sunday 2 November a ship carrying armaments to the LTTE and destroyed it fully towards the afternoon off the coast of Mullaitivu.

ABOUT three days ago naval intelligence got a tip-off that an LTTE arms ship flying a Maltese flag was on its way to Sri Lanka, said the Navy's Deputy Area Commander (East), Commodore Sarath Weerasekera, recapitulating the events which led to the destruction of a terrorist arms shipment off the coast of Mullaitivu by the Air Force on Sunday (November 2).

Ship caught smuggling arms for the terrorists, before and after the attack.

Joint intelligence sources were tracing down for sometime an armaments ship across this area. The Navy spotted this ship around 8 am in the waters not far from the coast. Several boats were also observed moving around the ship. The Navy called this vessel on the international channel but there was no response.

Kfir jet aircraft were then scrambled to the location with the Pucara aircraft and MI24 helicopter gunships. Information from the Air Force intelligence equipment provided pictures of the ship preparing to unload its lethal cargo into small boats. The pilot of the Kfir air craft utilised their machines and equipment to the maximum advantage, dropping M82 bombs with pin point accuracy on the ship.

The destruction of the enemy target was only possible due to the co-ordination of one of the Air Force's unmanned aerial vehicle with the Kfir fighter jets. The unmanned aerial vehicle relayed the exact longitude and the latitude of the enemy vessel which made it easy for the Kfirs to home in on the target. A main battle
tank which the terrorists were using as a shore battery to fire at naval ships was also destroyed by the Kfirs. Pictures also showed at least three lorries parked along the coast possibly waiting to transport the goods unloaded from the ship to an LTTE destination and the ship being hit by bombs disgorged by the AF's Kfirs.

The LTTE does not have cranes to disgorge cargo from a ship. It can be presumed that there may have been around 80 deck hands assisting in unloading the cargo to the smaller boats, he said.

It was also observed from pictures sent by the unmanned aerial vehicle that there were several smaller fast boats located to the north and the south of the mother ship, providing it with cover. To the west of the ship was the Mullaitivu coast which was barely 400 meters away from where the ship had anchored.

The coast was a hive of activity with four lorries stationed to take the cargo being unloaded and brought to the shore by several smaller boats. The pictures of several other terrorist boats in readiness to face any possible contingency were also relayed by the unmanned aerial vehicles to the command centre.

Almost simultaneously after I directed the unmanned aerial vehicle over the target, the Air Force's MI-24 Hind type attack helicopters and Pucara ground attack craft flew to the vicinity of the scene. They were sent to engage the LTTE's smaller vessels and the land targets, Air Marshal Ranasinghe added.

Two Kfir fighter aircraft which were on standby at the Katunayake Air Force Base and which could fly at over twice the speed of sound then took off and reached the target area in 10 minutes.

They swooped down on the target dropping eight 250 kilogram bombs causing the ship to catch fire. Pictures which were being relayed by the unmanned aerial vehicle showed the enemy ship being rocked by several secondary explosions some of which were very severe. Clouds resembling mushrooms began to ascend with these explosions indicating that explosives and ammunition which were in the hold of the ship had also begun to explode after the ship caught fire due to the initial bomb attack.

The vibrations and the shock waves caused by the exploding ship may have caused several of the smaller LTTE vessels which were in the vicinity of the ship also to sink. The Kfirs, the helicopters and the Pucara aircraft then swooped on the enemy boats and several shore targets destroying many other enemy movements, including a main battle tank which was being used as a shore battery.

The ship was immediately set ablaze with a huge cloud of black smoke billowing from it caused by the destruction of several tons of explosive and ammunition it was carrying. The Pucara and the MI24 helicopter gunships then attacked the LTTE boats operating in the area, amidst heavy enemy fire and successfully destroyed several of them.

Air Force and Navy units were instructed to continue the engagement at a distance maintaining the cordon and harrassing fire on the target ship in order to prevent the enemy gaining access to the vessel, until the arrival of the second sortie of aircraft, as the vessel appeared to be taking a long time to sink despite aerial bombing.

The second sortie reengaged the target approximately at 16.50 hours and confined one direct hit on target. The vessel sank at 17.25 hours. Security forces will continue to monitor and keep surveillance in the area.

This incident of destroying the arms shipment is a credit to both our intelligence sources and operational units

(c) Sinhaya, 6 November 1997

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