Agence France-Presse,
COLOMBO: An elite Tamil Tiger suicide squad Monday attacked a key Sri Lankan military base in an unprecedented ground and air assault, leaving at least 34 dead on both sides.
The rebels said 21 members of their “Black Tiger” unit and two light aircraft struck the Anuradhapura air base north of the capital Colombo in an operation code-named “Ellalan,” the name of an ancient Tamil king.
Military sources said 13 servicemen, including two pilots, were killed and 22 others wounded in the assault, which is seen as the worst against the airforce since the July 2001 attack that destroyed over a dozen fighter planes.
In Monday's pre-dawn attack, three aircraft were also damaged, the military said, but the guerrillas said they destroyed eight aircraft, including the main spy plane of the security forces.
“The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) infiltrated the air base and also dropped two bombs. Two Mi-24 helicopter gunships and a K-8 trainer aircraft were damaged,” airforce spokesman Ajantha Silva said in Colombo.
Police said the bodies of 21 Tamil Tiger rebels were also recovered after the attack at the base, situated 210 kilometres (130 miles) north of the capital.
The police clamped a curfew in the area immediately after the attack, but later eased it.
The attack comes after a string of setbacks for the Tigers, who in July this year were ejected from their last stronghold in the east of the country.
The government also claimed earlier this month that it had sunk the Tamil Tigers' last gun-running ship involved in smuggling black market weapons to their mini-state in the north.
And last week the government claimed it had killed scores of rebels in sporadic fighting along the northern frontlines.
“We have destroyed eight aircraft on the ground at Anuradhapura which is the largest logistics base for the Sri Lankan security forces,” LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said by telephone from rebel territory.
He said those involved in the ground attack were “Black Tigers” — cadres tasked with missions from which they can be certain of not returning, causing as much death and destruction as possible before committing suicide.
Military sources said the bigger loss for the security forces apart from the fatalities was the destruction of a Beechcraft aircraft fitted with advanced electronic spy devices. Three other smaller spy planes were also believed to have been damaged.
The attack was the first Tiger aerial strike since they attacked oil installations in the capital on April 28.
The Tigers, fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east, are believed to have a small fleet of Czech-made Zlin Z-143 single-engine light aircraft.
The planes are believed to have been smuggled in pieces into the north of the island by boat, and can be flown from tiny makeshift airstrips in the jungle.
In the past, the rebels have also carried out air attacks against the air base adjoining Sri Lanka's only international airport.
A 2002 truce brokered by Norway began to unravel in December 2005, and since then thousands of people have killed and many more displaced as fighting in Asia's longest-running civil war has progressively escalated.
