Operation Jayasikurui

Operation Jayasikuru
Part of the Sri Lankan civil war
Date
  • 13 May 1997 – 9 February 1999 (1997-05-13 – 1999-02-09)
    (1 year, 8 months and 27 days)
[1]
Location
Sri Lanka
Result See aftermath
Belligerents
Sri Lanka Military of Sri Lanka Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Commanders and leaders
Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga
General Rohan Daluwatte
Brigadier Vasantha Perera
Brigadier Sarath Fonseka		 Velupillai Prabhakaran
Colonel Theepan
Colonel Karuna Amman
Strength

5 Divisions: 50,000 soldiers[1]

53 Division
21 Division
54 Division
55 Division
56 Division		 5,000 soldiers:
Charles Antony Special Regiment
Jeyanthan Regiment
Casualties and losses

4 months before the official end[2][3][4]:

  • 3,566 killed
  • 11,200 wounded
  • 1 Mil Mi-17 & 1 Mil Mi-24 destroyed
  • 21 Tanks (13 May – 27 August 1997) & other armoured vehicles destroyed
 2,146 killed; unknown wounded[5]

Operation Jayasikurui (Certain Victory in Sinhala), was a Sri Lankan military operation launched on 13 May 1997, it lasted until 1999, when it was called off. The operation was initially launched for 6 months but cancelled after 18 months as Sri Lankan government faced huge loss. It was the largest military operation undertaken by the armed forces at the time.[6][7]

The primary objective of this operation was to clear a land route to the government-held Jaffna peninsula (which had no land supply routes) through territory held by the LTTE (or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, popularly known as the Tamil Tigers), by linking the government-held towns of Vavuniya and Kilinochchi.[8]

At the time it was the largest military operation undertaken by the Sri Lankan military. Initially, the Sri Lankan military experienced success by forcing the LTTE out of Killinochchi, capturing large areas, however, the LTTE managed to launch an effective counter-attack which reversed some gains made by the government forces. After failing to achieve the original objective, the government called off the operation.

  1. ^ a b Operation Jayasikuru, Sri Lanka Army
  2. ^ "TamilNet".
  3. ^ "TamilNet".
  4. ^ "TamilNet".
  5. ^ TamilNet: 13.05.98 A long year on the road
  6. ^ Rotberg, Robert I (2003). State failure and state weakness in a time of terror. Cambridge (Mass.): World peace Foundation. pp. 231, 232. ISBN 978-0-8157-7574-4. OCLC 470859618.
  7. ^ Taras, Ray; Ganguly, Rajat (2017). Understanding ethnic conflict. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-34282-3. OCLC 1124389310.
  8. ^ Trawick, Margaret (2007). Enemy Lines : Warfare, Childhood, and Play in Batticaloa. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-520-93887-8. OCLC 133797750.