Sri Lanka's key air base, airport under attack, jets destroyed
( 2001-07-24 11:25 ) (7 )

Suspected Tamil rebels launched a massive attack against Sri Lanka's main air base and the only international airport Tuesday, destroying a civilian jetliner and six military aircraft, officials said.

Six military aircraft, including two Israeli-built Kfir jets, a Mi-24 helicopter gunship and one Ukranian MiG-27 were believed to have been damaged in the pre-dawn raid on the airforce complex at Katunayake, 35 kilometres (21 miles) north of here.

The defence ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said six military aircraft and a SriLankan Airlines Airbus A-330 passenger jet were hit by in the heavy fighting.

He said the fighting shifted from the airbase to the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport which was immediately shut down and all international flights to Sri Lanka were diverted to neighbouring India.

The authorities also clamped an indefinite curfew in and around the airport and passengers leaving the country were stopped about a mile (kilometre) away and turned back by the military.

"An attack is on at the airforce base," defence ministry spokesman Karunaratne said. "It is undoubtedly an LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) attack, but I don't have details of how they got in."

There were no immediate details of casualties.

Officials said passengers and workers trapped in the airport were being evacuated in an orderly manner under tight military escort.

Residents said they could hear intermittent gun fire and explosions two hours after the first bursts were heard. A fire was seen raging within the airforce complex, residents said.

A fuel storage tank and an ammunition dump of the airbase had been hit causing a massive fire within the military complex, military sources said.

They said they suspected that a group of about 20 rebels may have infiltrated the airforce complex to carry out an attack similar to the sabotage of the main oil storage depot here in October 1995.

Tamil rebels attempted to blast the airport with a car bomb in June 1995, but the attack failed when the explosives rigged to a vehicle did not go off.

The latest attack came on the "Black July" anniversary which marks the July 1983 anti-Tamil riots in which some 400 to 600 people were killed in and around the capital Colombo.

The rioting marked a watershed in the LTTE's struggle for a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the island's northeast.

At the beginning of this month, the airforce carried out several air attacks against suspected Tamil rebel targets in and around the northern peninsula of Jaffna.

Neighbouring India and the US expressed concern over the attacks as Norway was trying to broker peace between the Colombo government and the Tamil rebels.

Colombo argued the air attacks were ordered because the guerrillas were trying to launch a major offensive aimed at retaking the northern peninsula of Jaffna which they lost to the military in December 1995.

The targets bombed earlier this month included LTTE gun positions, fuel and ammunition dumps, food stores, accommodation and command and control centres, the government said.

Following those attacks, the LTTE warned the government would "permanently" damage peace prospects if it continued its aerial bombings.

"We can say categorically that there is no imminent offensive plan by the LTTE as fantasised by the government," the LTTE said referring to government claims of a rebel build up south of the peninsula.

The Tigers accused President Chandrika Kumaratunga of resorting to "military adventurism" to draw public attention away from opposition moves to topple her shaky coalition administration.

Norwegian attempts to broker peace in Sri Lanka have been deadlocked over rebel demands that a ban on their organisation be lifted before they enter talks.