LTTE say 'Black Air Tiger' pilots were on 'suicide mission'

Tamil Tigers on Saturday, said the two aircraft they sent to carry out audacious attacks on the Sri Lankan capital were on a "suicide mission" and not meant to return.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said two men from the elite "Black Air Tiger" suicide squad piloted the two light aircraft that carried out the attack on Friday night and claimed they were not shot down.

The rebels claimed the aircraft had been sent to pick up prize targets in Colombo and it was this intention that they crashed the plane onto two defence installations.

"The aircrafts dived into Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Headquarters in Colombo and into the SLAF base at Katunayaka at around 0915 pm last night carrying out successful air raids," pro-LTTE website TamilNet.com reported.

That it was a suicide attack is being confirmed by the Sri Lankan authorities who said one of the aircraft was found to have been carrying large quantity of explosives (almost 280 pounds of high explosives).

TamilNet.com also published a photograph of the two suicide pilots - Col Roopan and Lt Col Siriththiran - together with Tigers supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran said to have been taken shortly before they embarked on the death mission.