ABSTRACT
With the fall of Jaffna Peninsula, the government's attention focused on the Wanni. The Wanni had seen little action since mid-1992, when the army ended the last of its major operations to degrade rebel power in the region. The Forward Defence Line (FDL) turned the entire rebel-held Wanni into a veritable fortress, marking its land frontier with a trench and bunker line. When the army advanced, the FDL moved forward, the bulldozers that cut through the scrub also digging up the trenches and throwing up earthen embankments. The most vulnerable section of the FDL was in the East. There the FDL cut through the Tigers passage between the North and the East, the heavily guarded Sinhala settlements adding to the impediments to the rebels movements. The army, however, had reasons to be optimistic about undertaking operations in the Wanni. The command and control, fire support and logistic elements were located inside the bunker line.
