LTTE ‘air force’ small, but a significant threat

Monday’s pre-dawn air strike on the island’s biggest air force base, close to Colombo’s international airport—the first such rebel attack—may sound like something out of a Biggles schoolboy novel, but it should be cause for worry.

“This air attack appears to have taken the air force by complete surprise, and this is confirmed by the delayed response, by which time the attackers have been able to return to base,” said Iqbal Athas of Jane’s Defence Weekly.

The rebel bombs hit a barracks at the air base, 37 km north of the capital, killing three airmen and wounding 16. But the attack failed to destroy Air Force fighter jets, which were the target.

“It is a significant threat for a number of reasons. What they did, although they may have failed to achieve their target, is to demonstrate that they have such a capability,” Athas said.

“The larger offshore patrol vessels of the navy can become vulnerable, troop transport ships can become vulnerable and so can armed groups leading an offensive on the ground.”

The attack has also exposed the vulnerability of Sri Lanka’s radar air defences. Experts say Sri Lanka has no access to costly 24-hour real-time satellite footage of its skies.

At least one of the Tiger aircraft is believed to be a Czech-made Z-143 two-seater training light aircraft.

Biggles or battle stations ?

Pro-rebel Web site tamilnet.com posted photographs of shadowy rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who has lived in hiding for much of the two-decade conflict, standing with Tiger airmen in characteristic Tiger stripes.

They also show two Tiger rebels sitting in the cockpit of a single-propeller two-seater aircraft painted in army camouflage colours, as well as the underside of an aircraft with four bombs attached to it.

“They have been caught with their pants down. It’s like something out of Biggles,” said one foreign security expert on condition of anonymity, referring to the

novels about a fictional British World War One fighter pilot.

“The Air Force is still trying to find out where they have come from,” said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. “You can come along the beach side or over water without being detected.”

Samarasinghe laughed at the Tigers’ claim of a new Tamil

Eelam Air Force, named after the independent state they are trying to carve out in the island’s north and east.

“There won’t be any Tamil Eelam. Small aircraft coming and dropping one or two bombs, it’s not an air force.”

The Tigers, who have suffered a series of major defeats on the battlefield and at sea in recent months but retain their guerrilla warfare capability, have warned of a bloodbath across the island and have threatened more air attacks.