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| LTTE leader Velupillai Pirabakaran with Air Tigers. Photo Alex/LTTE |
Two aircraft of the Tamil Eelam Air Force (TAF) launched a night raid Monday, dropping several bombs on the hangers where Sri Lanka’s main jet bomber fleet are kept.
The adjacent international airport, 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of Colombo, was not hit, but it closed briefly before resuming operations a few hours later.
Whilst the government says only two helicopter gunships were slightly damaged, airmen coming off duty told reporters in Colombo that several SLAF jet bombers were put out of action by fierce fires which broke out in the hangars struck by the LTTE aircraft.
Up to 40% of the SLAF’s strike capability has been knocked out, they said.
B. Raman, a former counter-terrorism head of India’s external intelligence service, said in an analysis this week that the “TAF air strike has severely damaged, if not destroyed, at least a half of the aircraft holdings of the SLAF.”
“The Sri Lankan Government has imposed a total black-out on the losses [it] suffered [so as] to hamper any damage assessment by the media and other analysts,” he wrote.
Three air force men were killed and another 16 wounded in the raid which began at 12.45 am.
The LTTE admitted responsibility the daring raid, publishing for the first time photos of their fledgling airforce, showing a group of pilots and a small aircraft.
The LTTE said Monday’s attack was in retaliation for SLAF bombing of Tamil civilians.
"Other Sri Lanka military installations will also be targets of our future attacks," LTTE military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan told reporters.
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse held an emergency meeting of the country’s security leadership Monday as the government imposed a total blackout on the LTTE bombing raid.
During the day Monday journalists were kept away from the airbase by heavily armed air force troops who searched surrounding areas with dogs.
Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials who attempted to visit the Air Force base Monday to initiate inquiries into the attack were refused access to the site by top Air Force officials, an SLMM spokesman told the Daily Mirror.
SLMM spokesman Thorfinur Omarsson said the monitors however managed to visit the injured at the Negombo hospital and would make another attempt to visit the air base Tuesday stressing it was important that access is granted for the monitors to rule on the incident.
Meanwhile, only two propeller-driven Pucara ground attack aircraft and a seaplane took off from Katunayake all day Monday.
A significant section of the SLAF’s jet bomber fleet, including several Israeli-made Kfirs are based at Katunayake.
At least six Kfirs were housed in the hangers bombed by two LTTE aircraft in the early hours Monday.
The LTTE bombs had triggered fires and secondary explosions in the hangars, airmen who came off duty Monday told reporters.
The Sri Lankan government has played down the attack saying only two bombs dropped by the LTTE aircraft exploded.
But several press reports in the early hours quoted residents being woken by at least four loud blasts followed by gunfire.
Tourists in the international terminal speaking to international agencies also reported a series of loud explosions amid gunfire.
