Tamil Tiger rebels said on Tuesday that two of their planes bombed Palaly airstrip, the main Lanka air base in the north. However, the military said it fended off the attack with anti-aircraft fire but lost six soldiers.Ground troops fired at the rebel aircraft, which dropped two bombs on military bunkers, though not on the base itself, the military said. “Six soldiers died, not only due to this, there was some artillery firing also,” military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said.“Tamil Tigers air wing attacked the Palaly airstrip and military storage,” an LTTE spokesman said by telephone. “Our aircraft returned safely.” He said the two planes had dropped eight bombs on the military complex after midnight. Pro-Tiger portal Tamilnet reported the attack inflicted “heavy damage” on a military garrison.But the military denied the Tigers’ story. “Nothing like that happened,” air force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha de Silva said.A resident of the garrison town of Jaffna, less than 15 km south of Palaly, said she heard what sounded like shelling, then the power went out, and then she heard the distant sound of an airplane. 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.
