| Kokkilai Offensive | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSri Lankan civil war,Eelam War I | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Sri Lanka |  Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Lt. Shantha Wijesinghe | Velupillai Prabhakaran Ranjan Kanagaratnam † | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 100 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 4 killed | 16 killed | ||||||
TheKokkilai offensive was an attack on theSri Lanka Army encampment inKokkilai,Mullaitivu District,Sri Lanka, on the night of 13 February 1985 by theTamil Tigers. It was the first direct assault on a Sri Lanka military base by a Tamil militant group in the early stages of theSri Lankan Civil War.[1][2]
The outpost in the Kokkilai was commanded by Lieutenant Shantha Wijesinghe when it came under attack on the night of 13 February 1985 by a large group of militants.[3] It was the first time the militants made use ofRPGs.[3] The garrison held out and received reinforcements by morning. Total 16 bodies of militants were found outside the camp perimeter dressed in military type uniforms and with night vision glasses.[4]Ravi Jayewardene, National Security Adviser of thenPresident of Sri LankaJ.R. Jayewardene reported to the National Security Council that the Kokkilai attack was a full-scale armed confrontation and said theTamil Tigers were becoming a ‘sophisticated enemy.’ It is believed theTamil TigerRanjan Kanagaratnam[5] died in this attack. LieutenantShantha Wijesinghe received afield promotion tocaptain, the first time in the army’s history.[6]
