Galle Fort, which is now entirely non-military
News is sketchy, but LBO and Jasmine are reporting that “bombs went off near the harbour and there is some gunfire.†The Colombo DIG says an attack on the Galle Naval camp is going on. LBO has a comprehensive report – ‘Suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bombers Wednesday infiltrated the port of Galle in southern Sri Lanka and were attacking facilities there, defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP. “The attack is going on at the moment and we have no reports of any commercial shopping areas being attacked.”‘ Galle is possibly the furthest point from Killinochchi and it’s an audacious place for them to attack. They are also making a concerted series of attacks on the Navy which most have some strategic portent.
Does make me wonder if its terrorism to attack military installations. Not that it is good, like Al Qaeda attacking the USS Cole. Just wonder if those acts are classed as ‘terrorism’.
“Galle is possible the furthest point from Killinochchi” !?
“There also making a concerted attack on the Navy which most have some strategic portent.” !?
they were foiled in doing something similar to colombo earlier when several frogmen were arrested in coast in wattala. navy is a easy target in the same way military on leave were easy targets. more no doubt will follow as more desperate they become. expect more bombs targeted at civilians too.
they want to provoke a backlash more than anything. that wont happen. whatever ltte or its peacenik helpers who keep on harping about 83, want others to believe.
btw this just goes to show they really do not want talks, only an excuse to blame the ‘sinhalese’ for war.
btw to answer the question if this particular attack was targeted at navy only and not the port, it won’t count as a terrorist act. but given the tiger track record that doesn’t really matter.
As far as I know, the current ‘working definition’ of terrorist acts come from the 1999 Financing Terrorism Act (since the 2000 Comprehensive Convention is still underway). That definition includes an “act intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organisation to do or to abstain from doing any act”.
So couldn’t you say the Galle attack WAS a terrorist act since the Navy point attacked “was not taking an active part in hostilities”?? Esp considering that, as Indi pointed out, Galle is not exactly near Kilinochchi or anything!
wow. then, the Government has been doing lot of terrorist acts too, no?
“btw this just goes to show they really do not want talks, only an excuse to blame the ’sinhalese’ for war. ”
On the contrary, it doesn’t show anything of the sort. It shows that the LTTE want to strengthen their negotiating position at the talks, nothing else.
“So couldn’t you say the Galle attack WAS a terrorist act since the Navy point attacked “was not taking an active part in hostilitiesâ€?? ”
Don’t be silly. Then all attacks (even in conventional warfare) against anything other than the immediate frontline can be termed terrorism.
Exactly, which is one of the conundrums of such “definitions” of “terrorism”. Maybe that’s why the comprhensive convention is still being only “talked about” 5/6 yrs down the line? Sigh.
ravana :
really ? how exactly does their negotiating position get strengthened by such attacks? if they want government to make concessions this will not help. if anything it will harden gosl’s stand.
or may be you think they want to prevent government making any concessions(if they wanted to make any in the first place ) and make gosl lose face with international community? imo that is stretching too far, but even if that is the case, this attack will give government a valid excuse to say that it is ltte that is trying to prevent peace talks by suicide attacks.
in fact other than direct damage to military (which at best can never be of great significance from such attacks- if they want to damage military significantly they have to fight and they failed in all three of their operations) only way this attack will help ltte is if there is a backlash against tamil civilians in south. if you observed the ltte propaganda after everyone of those attacks from december 2005, it is clear they desperately wanted such a backlash to happen(so much for their concern for tamils). in case of april trinco riot their propagandists almost succeeded in magnifying a small and quickly controlled disturbance into another black july ’83 and ‘genocide’ with the help of peaceniks. falseness whose terrorist boot licking ‘fact finding’ report can be observed everyday in trinco.
that is why i say they do not want talks but a way to blame ’sinhalese’ and legitimatize their war in face of dropping support from everywhere.
so expect more attacks. esp ones targeted at civilians. while security forces and ppl will foil some(hopefully most) others will inevitably succeed. that is what happens when we fight terrorists. but alternative is worse.
I think ravana has a point, this sort of thing (attacks in hitherto “safe” areas of Galle and Habarana) shows GoSL that LTTE still has a heck of a bite (in order to redress the resultant power of recent military history (pre-muhumalai)). That way the LTTE comes to the table with more strength and a better chance of getting concessions. That said, I don’t think they’re at all keen on peace talks succeeding since their power is derived from conflict. Nonetheless, going to the table with more military bite is better than with less.
Sittingnut – it’s blatantly obvious how it strengthens their negotiating position: it demonstrates that they are not as weak as we thought they were, it demonstrates that we are not as strong as we thought we were, it demonstrates that they still have the will and the ability to hit out and make it hurt, it demonstrates that Sarath Fonseka is fallible, it reminds us that the security of Tamil civilians can still be threatened by the Sinhalese (although admittedly, in a limited way), it demonstrates that we can’t just walk into Elephant Pass, it demonstrates that our military resources are sorely limited, and that we can easily overstretch ourselves. Even if you disagree on some sub-points, I don’t know how you can see what to me is blindingly obvious.
Yes Ravana but the flash of blinding light doesn’t affect those who already cannot see no? Sigh.
There is also something to be said about the choice of targets. The soft military targets in Galle and the fairly unresisted attack on the Navy convoy, show that the LTTE are also trying to confine their attacks to military targets, albeit more accessible ones.
Clearly their campaign is one of short sharp jabs which will not appall the international community. The Galle strike was a mastermind for reasons elaborated by Ravana and myself on another of Indi’s posts.
The text messages which I’m sure you would have got yesterday giving the registration numbers of apparently explosive laden vehicles and the Pearl Harbour photos that someone is forwarding as supposed fallout from the attack on Galle (honestly some people are so thick), are also probably part of a subliminal terror attack by the Tigers in an effort to spread panic without actual strikes on civilians.
They are a superb unconventional force. Fonny needs to pull his socks up.
ravana
it demonstrates that they are not as weak as we thought they were,
that they can attack with suicide bombers against soft targets? that shows their strength? such successful attacks against soft attacks are inevitable. even small number ppl can undertake them as shown by incidents around the world. it is only in hollywood that only the villains get foiled and killed every time. don’t judge by the that standard. what will determine who is weak is how we respond, not the attack itself or our counter attack if any. that will not change unless there is a major loss of an army camp, jaffna, trinco, etc in actual fighting.
they still have the will and the ability to hit out and make it hurt
of course few will always have the will to hurt others. this attack did not change that.
it demonstrates that Sarath Fonseka is fallible
!? i did not know anybody considered him to be a pope. ever heard of a military commander with 100% success rate ? esp with defending individual attacks against his soft targets
it reminds us that the security of Tamil civilians can still be threatened by the Sinhalese (although admittedly, in a limited way)
that is their intent as i said but history of 20+ years prove otherwise. inevitable few idiots and criminals who try, will be controlled. ( btw to equate sinhalese with few looters trying profit from it, is as racist as some ppl’s equating of tamils with terrorists, curios how some ppl get way with that kind of racism. may be you equate all americans and british as racists when few attack muslims and sikhs(!) after terrorist incidents? ) . words are important here bc what remains is propaganda. that is why such propaganda should be debunked and exposed with facts whenever it appears, whether from ltte propaganda, peaceniks, naive idiots, or bbc.
it demonstrates that we can’t just walk into Elephant Pass, it demonstrates that our military resources are sorely limited, and that we can easily overstretch ourselves.
nobody is going to walk into elephant pass, nobody tried.(don’t believe military propaganda either though i don’t think even they made any such claim .) nor imo should it be attempted. as i have said here before no major offensives should be attempted. in fact that is what military is doing. taking a defensive stance and conducting small scale limited operations. some will succeed some may fail. we will win only in the long term. that was a fact before the attack and after the attack. attack did not change anything with regard to that.
I don’t know how you can (not )see what to me is blindingly obvious.
as far as i can see this attack did not change anything. it showed that ltte can and will attack soft targets and not every attack will be foiled, that it will try to create a backlash but that will go nowhere, that ltte is still there and we can only defeat it in the long term, and yes ltte want to hurt anyone opposed to it, all that was obvious before th attacks for anyone who doesn’t judge events by hollywood standards and do not believe propaganda from both sides.
so what is so ‘blindingly obviously’ new and changed with regard to negotiating position of the government bc of these attacks?
in fact only thing that happened was further undermining of peacenik spin that ltte want to talk seriously. nobody else believed that before and this just confirms.
sophist:
‘flash of blinding light’ seems to have blinded you as usual.
Yes Snut….I’m groping around in the dark trying to make sense of what you’ve just said. Clearly I am intellectually deficient.
sophist:
clearly :-)