APRIL24: After a series of air strikes, Sri Lanka is now facing the problem of confronting the seriously equipped LTTE. It is time for wailing sirens to push in the music as air raids follow. The first raids took place on March 26, when two LTTE light Czech-made, single engine, and propeller driven aircrafts bombed the SLAF's main base at Katunayake, next to the Bandaranaike International airport, north of Colombo. The first attack was carried out at 12.45 a.m. and resulted in the life of three personnel and injuring 16 others.
In the latest stint the LTTE carried out their second air raid and attacked a military target. Two light aircrafts belonging to "Tamil Elam Air Force (TAF) struck the High Security Zone of the Sri Lankan Air Force base at Palaly in the northern district of Jaffna. The raid took place in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The Lankan Defence Ministry has denied the air attack, but said that the Tigers had used artillery to target the Palaly military complex. However the Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan opposed the statement and said: "We have carried our second air attack at 0120 local time on the Palaly air field and their military stores. The raid has inflicted heavy casualties in the main complex of the Palaly military base.�
Some military sources said that six soldiers were killed and another six wounded at a location just outside Palaly following the guerrilla attack.
As the LTTE's aircraft struck the High Security Zone at about 1.30 am, the Myliddy army camp within the zone was subjected to an artillery onslaught from the militants' base at Pooneryn, in the south, across the Jaffna lagoon.
But Lankan government's National Security website maintained that the aerial bombs had missed the airbase and had dropped two bombs on the Myliddy beach on their return path. A military spokesman said that an intense anti-aircraft fire from the ground had foiled the LTTE's bid to bomb Palaly, though the intruders managed to escape. He further added that Since the Palaly airbase, which also serves as a civilian airport was not hit; flights would take off and land as usual on Tuesday.
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