By IANS
Colombo : Tamil Tiger suicide attackers Monday stormed a key Sri Lankan air force base, combining their air and ground forces for the first time, leaving at least 30 military personnel and rebels dead.
The audacious assault began at 3.20 a.m. in Anuradhapura, which adjoins the troubled northern province and is located 180 km north of Colombo, and lasted hours, media reports and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said.
A total of 21 LTTE Black Tiger guerrillas, three women included, took part in the attack. The authorities said the rebels fled following a counter-attack from the military.
Two rebel light aircraft dropped two bombs while another group attacked the base on the ground, sparking off a 45-minute battle, DPA reported.
According to LTTE military spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan alias Marshall, the rebel Air Tigers aircraft joined the attack at 4.30 a.m., causing destruction in the Sri Lankan air base. The LTTE planes “safely returned to their bases”.
The LTTE said that a MI-24 gunship of the Sri Lanka Air Force, helicopters including two MI-24 gunships, one MI-17, one PT6, one Bell 212, a CTH 748, and a reconnaissance aircraft, were destroyed.
The LTTE spokesman said: “A combined unit of 21 Black Tigers attacked the Anuradhapura air base, the largest operations logistic base in Sri Lanka.” Black Tigers are the LTTE’s suicide bombers.
The spokesman said that Monday’s attack was codenamed “Operation Ella’lan”. Ella’lan was a Tamil Chola king who ruled over the island from Anuradhapura, an ancient city, in the 2nd century BC.
Sri Lankan defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwela admitted that three helicopters were damaged and 13 airmen were killed. Another 18 were wounded. Nine of them died in the airbase.
In the confusion that followed the attack, a Sri Lankan military helicopter pursuing the rebels crashed in mysterious circumstances, killing the pilot, co-pilot and two gunners.
The authorities put the number of LTTE dead at 20. The LTTE very soon released group pictures of 21 guerrillas who took part in the operation in the company of its top leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Only the eyes of the LTTE Air Tigers cadres were camouflaged in a sign that the others may have perished in the daring strike.
Hours after the attack the air force pounded suspected Tamil rebel targets in the northern Kilinochchi district and claimed they had bombed one of the rebels’ training camps, DPA reported.
A curfew has been declared in the Anuradhapura area to facilitate the search operation. There were no reports of arrests.
Sri Lankan defence spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, said the attack was a clear sign that there was no use discussing political solutions to the ethnic conflict and that terrorism should be crushed.
Air Force spokesman Captain Ajantha Silva said later: “The situation has been brought under control, but search operations are in progress for the rebels who entered the area.”
DPA reported that investigations have revealed that some attackers had come through a lake close to the air base for the attack. The airbase is used for the military operations in the northern and eastern provinces.
Residents adjoining the airbase fled their homes soon after the attack, but most gradually returned, a local resident told DPA by telephone.
The LTTE used two light aircraft to carry out two separate attacks in March and April.
The first was on an airbase adjoining Sri Lanka’s only international airport at Katunayaka, 35 km north of Colombo, and the second on two oil installations.
The rebels also used the aircraft to attack a military base in the north, killing six soldiers. Three weeks ago some residents spotted a suspected rebel aircraft in the Anuradhapura district.
After the previous attacks the government claimed that it had the air capability to bring down the rebel planes.
Fighting in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka has escalated in the last two years. A Norwegian backed ceasefire between the government and the LTTE has been virtually ignored and over 5,300 have been killed in two years.