Sri Lanka rebel air, land attack kills five
Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Five Sri Lankan airmen were killed as Tamil Tiger rebels launched an unprecedented air and land attack on a northern military base, officials and a pro-rebel website said on Monday.
Rebels flying light aircraft bombed the Anuradhapura airbase under cover of darkness, killing one serviceman and wounding 18 others and damaging two stationary helicopter gunships, the defence ministry said.
Four other airmen were killed when a Bell 212 helicopter, flown in as back-up during the "heavy" assault, went down due to a technical fault, a ministry statement said.
"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) have infiltrated the airbase and also dropped about two bombs on the airbase and damaged two Mi-24 helicopter gunships," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told AFP.
Other military sources said two fixed-wing planes parked at the base, 212 kilometres (130 miles) north of the capital Colombo, were hit.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said it was the Tigers' first combined ground and air raid. They caused panic with air attacks on the capital Colombo on April 28.
"This is the first time the Tigers have combined both air and ground attack in a raid," the website said.
Residents in Anuradhapura, an ancient sacred Buddhist city which attracts thousands of tourists every year, said the first sign of an attack was when they heard gunfire followed by low-flying aircraft and at least two blasts.
An airforce reconnaissance aircraft was observed circling over the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi, while three Israeli-built Kfir fighter jets flew over rebel areas after the attack, Tamilnet said.
The Tigers, fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east, are believed to have a small fleet of Czech-made Zlin Z-143 single-engined light aircraft.
The planes are believed to have been smuggled in pieces into the north of the island by boat, and can be flown from tiny makeshift airstrips in the jungle.
In the past, the rebels have also carried out air attacks against the airbase adjoining Sri Lanka's only international airport.
The latest attack came after a conference on combating terrorism ended in Sri Lanka over the weekend, with experts urging Colombo to hammer out a political settlement to end decades of bloodshed.
As Colombo turns its attention to the LTTE mini-state in the north, after scoring military victories in the east and curtailing the Tigers gun-running fleet, experts said authorities should instead try to revive peace efforts.
Former Indian army chief General V. P. Malik said Sri Lanka needed to resist the temptation to attempt to go in for the kill -- and rather work towards reviving the moribund peace process.bullshit
"There are no quick solutions to counter terrorism... the military can only create conditions wherein the adversary is inclined to or feel it necessary to come to the negotiating table," Malik said.
A 2002 truce brokered by Norway began to unravel in December 2005 and since then, thousands of people have killed and many more displaced as fighting in Asia's longest-running civil war once progressively escalates.
get real dude..
