Sri Lanka Navy’s amphibious attack on Irantivu island (Google Earth image below) is far removed from its pitched battles with the Seatigers not so long ago. Lately the LTTE Sea Tigers have been reluctant to put on their usual navel battles. Which has kept the Sri Lanka Navy out of the headlines. However the Navy seems to be on the offensive to thwart terrorist supply lines to India. Asia Tribune has a strategic overview. Part of that strategy is to launch guerrilla raids on the diminishing number of Seatiger “bases”. Usually obscure islands along the North-western coast like Iranativu.
It is not clear if Iranativu had civilian inhabitants at the time of the raid. Satellite images from 2006 show two settlements. The image below shows one of them. Curious types can explore Iranativu island via Google Maps. The only visible movement in the area appears to be a high speed boat steaming North West of Iranativu.
North of Iranativu island are supposed to be two LTTE Seatiger “bases” on Kakativu island and Irumaitivu are both included in the higher resolution images available on. If you spot anything suspicious point it out 🙂
Satellite images of combat areas arond Mannar is the closest most bloggers will get to the action. Those with any local knowlegde of these places please feel free to blab. Links to ground level images would be welcome (not much time to Google these things)
Cerno 
did u see these ?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Mannar+Sri+Lanka&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=88.197716,76.992188&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=9.285501,79.998348&spn=0.003801,0.004828&z=18&iwloc=addr
surely these r not ordinary homes? some sort ltte prison? and there’s a very large conference hall type thing on the northern island? is the navy in control of these islands? sldf maps never shows who is in control of islands like these
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nuwan: Yes I was those when I was looking at the island for the post. No idea what the deal is with those settlements.
The Defencewire post seems to think that there’s no one there. Or maybe they are referring to the possibility that there is no permanent military presence – by either the Sri Lankan government or the terrorists.
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