Background
Preparations for the offensive began with the resumption of hostilities after peace talks failed following the LTTE attack on the Trincomalee naval base. The administration of President Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered active military operations against the LTTE following this attack. Planning and preparation for the operation where conducted by Major General (later General) Rohan Daluwatte who was overall Operations Commander, and under the purview of Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Anuruddha Ratwatte who was the deputy-minister of Defense.
Preparations for the operation started in June 1993 under the Command of Major General Gamunu Kulatunge, who directed Col. Lucky Rajasinghe to plan the operation, assisted by Col. Mohan Rockwood as a response to the assassination of President Premadasa by the LTTE on 1 May 1993. Although the Sri Lankan Army was keen on launching an operation to capture Jaffna, the then President, D B Wijetunga, was against the operation. As he was not sure about the armed forces capabilities to sustain the thrust and to prevent to further alienate the tamil population.
The Tiger high-command, knowing that plans were afoot to capture the City of Jaffna, launched a pre-emptive strike on SL Army and Navy positions in the Kilali area and tried to overrun their positions at Poonaryn in November 1993. Major losses at Poonaryn left the Sri Lankan Military with the Palaly, Elephant Pass and Kyts areas, leaving the rest of the area in Jaffna to the Tigers. Since the main staging area for the attack was in Palaly, a small scale operation, code-named Operation Leap Forward (Planned and conducted by Major General Srilal Weerasooriya and Colonel Hiran Halangoda), was launched to expand the perimeter of the air base prior to Operation Riviresa expanding the holding area west of Karrainagar.
Read more about this topic: Operation Riviresa
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