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Sri Lankan separatists take fight to the air
For the first time Monday, the Tamil Tiger rebel group attacked Sri Lankan forces with their own small 'air force.'
from the March 28, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Facts are disputed after air attack
While the Sri Lankan government maintains that only two helicopter gun-ships were slightly damaged in the raid, the Tigers say on their website,Tamilnet.com, that several Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) jet bombers, including the prized Israeli-made Kfir jets, were "put out of action" after being bombed by their aircraft.
"Up to 40 percent of the SLAF's strike capability has been knocked out," the site claims. Rasiah Ilanthirayan, the rebels' military spokesperson was quick to warn that "more attacks of the same nature will follow."
"Their air-raid capability is like a new jewel to their crown," says Ashok Mehta, a retired Indian Army general who led the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to assist the Sri Lankan Army in fighting the Tigers in the late 1980s.
However, Mr. Mehta is quick to point out that the aircraft owned by the Tigers – possibly up to three in number – are crude in nature and are no match to the Sri Lankan Air Force's MiG-27s and Kfir jets.
According to the Sri Lankan military, the Tigers' new planes are locally designed one- or two-seater light aircraft assembled in Tiger-held territory with parts smuggled, most likely, from Southeast Asia. Most Tamil Tiger military hardware, military experts say, is smuggled from that region.
The Sri Lankan Air Force has long suspected the insurgents of trying to develop an air force.
Intelligence officials suspected that, before his death at the hands of the Sri Lankan Army in 2001, Colonel Shankar (the nom de guerre for rebel leader Vaithilingam Sornalingam) was working to create a viable armed, aerial force. Shankar, who was once an aeronautical engineer with Air Canada, was responsible for developing the airplanes from scratch since 1995, according to an SLAF report.
A routine reconnaissance mission by one of the SLAF's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in early 2005 detected an airfield in Tiger-held territory in the north of the island. Analysts estimated the field to be around 3,600 feet in length with a paved surface, sufficient to land a variety of different aircraft.
The Tiger air raid comes shortly after SLAF claims that they have destroyed the Tigers' air capabilities.
What's most surprising about the Tamil Air Force, says Mehta, is that the Tigers were able to improvise the assembly of a light, single-propeller aircraft equipped with automatic weapons circuitry and the ability to carry as many as four undercarriage bombs – a difficult feat of engineering for such small aircraft.
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