Operation Sath Jaya ( Sinhalese: ''Operation True Victory'') was the military offensive carried out by the

Sri Lankan Armed Forces The Sri Lanka Armed Forces is the overall unified military of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka encompassing the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Navy, and the Sri Lanka Air Force; they are governed by the Ministry of Defence (Sri Lank ...

in July to September 1996 to recapture the town of

Kilinochchi Kilinochchi (; ) is the main town of Kilinochchi District, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Kilinochchi is situated at the A9 road some south-east of Jaffna. It was the administrative center and de facto capital of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) until ...

from the

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

. The army launched the offensive from its base in

Elephant Pass Elephant Pass (; ) is a region located at the gateway of the Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It lies about 340 km north of the capital. It has an important military base and used to be the island's largest salt field. ...

in June in response to Battle of Mullaitivu in which the 25 Brigade of the army was overrun at its base in the town of

Mullaitivu Mullaitivu (; ) is the main town of Mullaitivu District, situated on the north-eastern coast of Northern Province, Sri Lanka. A largely fishing settlement, the town in the early twentieth century grew as an anchoring harbour of the small sailing ...

resulting in the deaths of over 2,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces personal. Units of the

Sri Lanka Army The Sri Lanka Army (; ) is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The army was officially established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, though the army traces its roots back in 1881 when Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers was created; ...

fought its way south from Elephant Pass along the A9 highway to Kilinochchi which it was able to recapture in September. The LTTE recaptured Kilinochchi in late September 1998.

References

{{coord missing, Sri Lanka Sath Jaya Military history of Sri Lanka 1996 in Sri Lanka 1996 in Asia Sath Jaya

See also

References