Two rebel Tamil Tiger aircraft have attacked the Sri Lankan capital Colombo and air force jets shooting down one plane and engaging the other, the air force has said. "Two aircraft came and still the engagement is going on," Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara, the air force spokesman said on Friday. The air craft that was shot down crashed inside the country's only international airport. Anti-aircraft fire erupted over Colombo as the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out the raid, hitting and setting on fire the main tax office in the centre of the city. At least 27 people were admitted to hospital following the bombing of the government office.
Tracer fire from the centre of the city could be seen and heard, witnesses said. Airport closed The international airport is closed and flights are being diverted to India.
"Ground troops in the north of the island have seen two light aircraft heading towards Colombo," a military official earlier said. "We have activated the air defence system," he said. The rebel Tamil Tiger fighters have a small fleet of aircraft that they have previously used to carry out aerial attacks on Colombo. Minelle Fernandez, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Colombo, said: "We have had since March 2007, when the LTTE launched its first air raid on Colombo ... a number of occasions when air raids have been launched, but they have not managed to hit any targets. "Having said that they have managed to come all the way to Colombo." The military claims to have put the LTTE under significant pressure since the start of the year, pinning the rebels back into an ever tighter area of the northeast of the island nation. None of the single engine aircraft have been found by the military during their advance. The LTTE have been fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the northeast of the country since the early 1980s. |
LTTE planes attack S Lanka capital
0 comments:
Post a Comment