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Sri Lanka rebels bomb military base in first air raid

COLOMBO (AFP) - Tamil Tiger rebels bombed a military airbase next to Sri Lanka's international airport Monday, killing at least three airmen and wounding 16 others in the group's first air raid, officials said.

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The airport north of the capital Colombo was not damaged in the attack on the Katunayake military base by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but authorities temporarily shut down the facility as a precaution.

"One of the LTTE aircraft had flown over the airbase and dropped some explosive items," airforce spokesman Ajantha Silva said, adding that damage to the military facility was "minor."

Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan warned that more attacks would follow.

"This mission was undertaken to reduce the air capability of the Sri Lankan airforce," he told AFP. "We will undertake similar missions to prevent the airforce bombing civilians."

The Tigers were known to posses light fixed-wing aircraft as well as an airfield in the rebel-held northern Wanni region, but they had not used the plane before in a combat mission.

Military sources said an unidentified craft was picked up by radar in the island's north about 40 minutes before the attack.

A Colombo-based Tamil newspaper quoted the leader of the LTTE's political wing, S.P. Thamilselvan, as saying that two aircraft had carried out the attack and returned safely to rebel-held territory.

At least four explosions were heard from the direction of the airbase, local residents said.

The defence ministry said no fighter aircraft were damaged, but two bombs hit the aeronautical engineering wing of the air force. Two parked helicopters were also damaged.

Silva said air defence systems were activated following the initial explosion.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry spokesman Ravinatha Aryasinha said the airport was not affected by the bombing. It reopened about two hours after the attack.

"There is no damage to the international airport or the runway," Aryasinha said. "Flights were suspended only as a precautionary measure."

Passengers aboard flights ready to take off were asked to disembark after the airport was shut and supersonic military jets took off to search for enemy planes, officials said.

Roads leading to the airport were closed and people trying to catch flights out of the country were turned back by police, residents said. The roads later reopened once the airport was back up and running.

Motorists and residents said they heard gunfire and several blasts near the international airport, about 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of Colombo, sparking fears of a repeat of a deadly July 2001 attack on the airbase.

Tamil Tiger rebels entered the base on July 24, 2001, destroying more than a dozen military aircraft before attacking six civilian aircraft parked at the international airport. They then detonated explosives strapped to their bodies.

About 20 people were killed in that attack, but passengers at the international airport were not affected.

Sri Lanka's airport has remained on alert since that attack, with severe restrictions on the number of people allowed into the terminal buildings.

Huge walls were also built around the terminals and the control towers to prevent impact from car bomb attacks, while a large number of security personnel were stationed along the approach roads.

The LTTE has been waging a 35-year campaign for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority in this majority Sinhalese nation.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in a wave of fighting in Sri Lanka since December 2005. The violence comes despite a truce in place since February 2002.



Wounded Sri Lankan air force soldiers receive treatment at a hospital in Negambo, about 30 miles north of capital Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, March 26, 2007. Tamil Tiger rebels in two light planes dropped bombs on Sri Lanka's main air force base on the outskirts of the capital early Monday, killing two officers, officials said. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

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