Cite
MLA
“Operation Jayasikurui.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/operation-jayasikurui-1997/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Operation Jayasikurui. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/operation-jayasikurui-1997/
After a year and a half of slow, costly fighting the army called the offensive off short of Kilinochchi, without opening the road to Jaffna.
01Up the A9
After Riviresa the army in Jaffna could be supplied only by sea and air. On 13 May 1997 several divisions began to push north from Vavuniya along the A9 through scrub jungle, while another force moved south from Elephant Pass. The LTTE did not fight for every village. It mined the road, struck the long exposed flanks of the advance and counter-attacked at night. Progress was measured in a few kilometres a month, and the casualty lists grew long. The towns of Puliyankulam and Mankulam changed hands more than once.
02Called off
In September 1998 the LTTE took Kilinochchi town, the army’s next objective, in a separate battle. In December 1998 the government ended Jayasikurui and pulled back to more defensible lines. In November 1999 the Tigers launched Unceasing Waves III and in a few days retook almost all the ground the army had won, and in April 2000 they captured Elephant Pass itself. The army would not hold Kilinochchi again until January 2009.
The failure of Jayasikurui left the LTTE at the height of its power in the Vanni, the position from which it negotiated the ceasefire of 2002.
