SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka military denies rebel claims that two of their aeroplanes were responsible for main air base bomb

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said on Tuesday (April 24) two of their airplanes bombed the main government air base in the north, while the military said it repulsed the attack with anti-aircraft fire but lost six soldiers. The military said a rebel aircraft dropped two bombs on military bunkers, though not on the base itself in Palaly, northern Sri Lanka. "This is the place where an incident had taken place and this aircraft came into this area and they turned towards the north and dropped the three bombs and went off to the sea side," northern military commander Major General Chandrasiri told reporters who were taken to the site by the military. Chandrasiri added: "Of course the soldiers came out, they fired at the aircraft. There were about 20 to 30 soldiers who came out from their bunkers and fired at the aircraft approaching this area. As a result we had few casualties because they bombed, they dropped the three bombs here." Chandrasiri said there had been no damages apart from a slight one in one of the buildings. The Tamil Tigers, who have been fighting for decades to establish independence in the north and east of the Indian Ocean island, said the planes dropped eight bombs on the military complex after midnight. But the military denied the Tigers' story. The Palaly airstrip is the only place the government can land supplies in the Jaffna peninsula, which is separated from the rest of the country by a swathe of rebel-held territory. Nearly a month ago, Tamil Tiger light aircraft flew undetected from the north to the capital on the southwestern coast and bombed the barracks of an air base that shares runways with the Colombo airport. The planes returned safely. That attack prompted a brief shutdown of the international airport, and Cathay Pacific suspended flights to and from Sri Lanka for almost a month. The Tamil Tigers warned of future attacks from an air force that analysts say consists of just two to five light propeller planes built by pieces smuggled in over time but constitutes a threat the military would be ill-advised to underestimate. Since 1983 the war in Sri Lanka has killed some 68,000 people, including more than 4,000 in the past 16 months. The intensified violence has left a 2002 ceasefire in tatters. AR

ITN Source | April 25, 2007

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