November21, 2006:
The death toll for this year is over 3,000, and the renewed war has
settled down to a battle for supply lines. The navy and air force have become
much more aggressive and effective at finding and destroying the LTTE boats
bringing in weapons and munitions. The LTTE has also refused calls for renewed
peace talks. This is partly because there is still a split within the LTTE,
between those who want to fight on for a partition of the island, versus those
who will settle for Tamil autonomy. The government takes advantage of this by
supporting the LTTE moderates. The air force has been bombing LTTE land bases,
while the LTTE has responded by forcing more civilians to live in and around
these bases, so that, when the bases are hit, the dead civilians can be used
for propaganda purposes. However, this time around, LTTE propaganda is much
less effective. The LTTE has been labeled a terrorist organizations in most
parts of the world, making it more difficult to raise, or extort, money from
expatriate Tamils. The ground war is still stalled, with neither side willing
to risk the heavy casualties that a major ground offensive would entail. The
land fighting remains one of artillery fire, ambushes and trying to cut supply
lines to government bases in the largely Tamil north.