Muhamalai

The Muhamalai Forward Defence Line was the Army Defence Line separating the Sri Lankan Army and LTTE militia in North Central Kilinochchi from South Central Jaffna. The distance between the first line of defences ranges from 200 to 600 meters. Sri Lankan soldiers captured the 1st Forward Defence Line (FDL) Mukamalaai and Kilali 20 November 2008 at about 5:00AM, pushing the LTTE lines 800m southward.

Although it is wider than the Nagarcoil FDL, because of the unique topography it is very difficult for either of the fighting forces to advance through enemy defence lines and destroy the enemy bunkers. This can be seen from the fact that for the past several years, after hundreds of battles and being the most active front in the Sri Lankan Civil War, the Defence positions have hardly moved either way. In almost all the occasions, the side trying to overrun enemy defence lines have suffered heavy casualties. The importance of Muhamalai lies in the fact that the Kandy-Jaffna Highway passes through the Muhamalai FDL. If SLA takes control of Muhamalai, then they will obtain a crucial land supply route. The LTTE have around 1,800 militiamen in Muhamalai and Nagarcoil. The SLA strength is several thousands. Elephant Pass, another strategic location lies to the South of Muhamalai. Unlike the other FDLs north of Mannar (Where large numbers of Eastern and Mannar Tamils are present) and Southern Vanni, LTTE cadres in these two FDLs consist mostly of Jaffna Tamils. LTTE positions. For the past several years Muhamalai FDL is the most active FDL in Sri Lankan Civil War (Despite being static for the entire time) and it is the location where a huge part of the casualties have occurred.

On April 21, 2008 Sri Lankan Army launched a major offensive towards Muhamalai FDL with the help of tanks and artillery. SLA overran the first-line-of-defence lines held by the LTTE cadres, forcing the militiamen to withdraw to their second line of defence. But the LTTE militia engaged in heavy mortar and RPG fire from their new positions towards the weakly defended former first line of defence, where the SLA troops got trapped. Close to 15 SLA soldiers and 52 LTTE militiamen died in the attack according to Defencenet [1] and 176 SLA soldiers and 25 militiamen died according to the LTTE. The Army claimed that their forward defence line was extended by 500 meters after the battle [2], but the Tamils refuted this claim and even showed pictures of dead soldiers lying scattered in the bunkers in first line of defence. As of April 24, 2008, SLA have so far handed over 6 militia dead bodies and LTTE have handed over 28 army dead bodies to the Red Cross.

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