Suspected Tiger attack on Sri Lanka's main airbase, international airport shut

COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger rebels launched a pre-dawn attack against Sri Lanka's main military airbase on Monday, prompting the immediate closure of the adjoining international airport, officials said. The military said two airmen were killed in the attack and 17 wounded.  

LTTE rebels said they used two aircraft to bomb Sri Lanka's main military airbase and both planes returned to rebel-held territory safely after the attack. 

The political wing leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), S. P. Thamilselvan, told a Colombo-based Tamil newspaper in a telephone interview that they carried out the bombing.   

"The LTTE awaited the safe return of the two aircraft before claiming the attack," a reporter on the newspaper quoted Thamilselvan as saying. 

"A couple of aircraft of Tamil Eelam Air Force have launched an attack on a Sri Lankan military airfield and hangars of military aircraft," rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said.   

"It is not only preemptive, it is a measure to protect Tamil civilians from the genocidal aerial bombardments by Sri Lankan armed forces," he added.

"More attacks of the same nature will follow."  

At least four explosions were heard from the Katunayake airbase, which shares a boundary with the Bandaranaike international airport, and 12 airmen were taken to a nearby hospital, military officials said.   

 Sri Lanka's military admitted that the Tigers had used their aircraft for the first time and bombed the airbase, where two people were killed and another 17 wounded. Two parked helicopters were also damaged.   

"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."

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

"Our air defence system was activated and a search operation is now under way," Silva said.    

He said the nature of the attack was not immediately clear, but military sources said they could not rule out an airborne attack by the guerrillas, who are known to possess light aircraft.   

At least two military helicopters were reported to have been damaged together with a hangar. Passengers aboard flights ready to take off from the international airport were asked to disembark as 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. Telephone lines to the airport were also jammed.   

Motorists and residents said they heard gunfire and several blasts near the international airport, about 35 kilometres north of here, sparking fears of a repeat of the July 2001 attack.   

Tamil Tiger rebels entered the airbase on July 24, 2001 and destroyed more than a dozen military aircraft and then attacked six civilian aircraft parked at the international airport before detonating explosives strapped to their bodies.   

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

Defence ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said he could confirm an "incident" at the military airbase, where security forces have their supersonic jets and a fleet of helicopter gunships.   

Officials here said initial suspicion pointed to a possible rocket-propelled grenade attack or a mortar bomb being fired at the military base, but there was no confirmation.    

"We suspect there were at least four explosions," a military source said, adding that the blasts had hit the military airbase complex.      

Sri Lanka's airport has remained on alert for a repeat of the 2001 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 sentries were placed along the approach roads to the facility.