Tigers keep Colombo guessing By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Even as Sri Lankan government forces were on Friday celebrating the
capture of the last strategic town held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) in the nation's northeastern Mullaitivu district, the Tigers were
sending a strong signal that they still have some punch left in their paws.
Two light aircraft from the LTTE's air wing made a daring kamikaze-style
raid on the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) headquarters in the Sri Lankan capital,
Colombo, and the SLAF airbase near the international airport at Katunayake,
about seven kilometers west of the capital.
The air attack came before an LTTE letter to the United Nations (UN) and the
international community on Monday stating it was
prepared to heed international calls for "an immediate ceasefire", but not to
relinquish its arms.
B Nadesan, the political head of the Tigers, wrote in the letter, "we are ready
to discuss, cooperate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an
immediate ceasefire and work towards a political settlement" to end the civil
war. He added that international calls for the rebels to lay down arms are "not
helpful for resolving the conflict".
However, the Sri Lankan government immediately rejected the offer, insisting
that the guerrillas should unconditionally lay down their arms first.
One aircraft was shot down north of the city in Friday's air attack before it
could strike the airbase, while the other slammed into an Inland Revenue
Department building near the SLAF headquarters, killing two people and injuring
around 45 others - both pilots died in the attacks.
The government dismissed the LTTE air raid as a "failed stunt", but though both
aircraft were shot down before they could hit their targets the attacks were
not a complete failure. The planes left substantial damage, and punched holes
in the Sri Lankan government's claims that security forces had left the Tigers
badly crippled. The air raid caused intense fear among the capital's population
for several hours, and was a signal to the world that the Tigers are down but
certainly not out.
This is the seventh air attack to be launched by the LTTE since 2007. While
speculation on its aerial capabilities has raged since the late 1990s, it was
only in March 2007 that the LTTE revealed its aerial strength. Then, two of its
aircraft penetrated the defenses of Katunayake airbase, killing 3 officials.
With the attack the LTTE announced its arrival as the only insurgent
organization in the world to possess air power.
In the two years since, the LTTE has carried out air strikes on Sri Lankan air
force bases at Palali and Anuradhapura, military installations in Weli Oya and
Vavuniya, the harbor at Trincomalee and oil storage facilities near Colombo.
That the Tigers were able to repeatedly penetrate the government's defenses and
more importantly, fly their aircraft back undamaged showed that their aerial
capabilities, while nascent, were not to be scorned.
While Friday's attacks were the first time that the LTTE has lost both aircraft
involved in the operation, the militant group has claimed that the operation
was always a suicide mission, that the destruction of its aircraft was
intentional and part of the mission rather than a result of the government's
retaliatory fire.
Air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara told the Associated Press
that one of the planes was loaded with about 264 pounds (120 kilograms) of
explosives, but the pilot could not detonate it because he had lost a hand to
anti-aircraft fire.
If the aerial operation was indeed a suicide mission, it is the first time that
the Tigers have deployed their aircraft in a suicide attack. Analysts have
argued in the past that given the limited number of aircraft the LTTE possessed
it was highly unlikely that it would be willing to sacrifice them in an
operation. Others have argued that if the LTTE used their air wing for a
suicide mission it would be only be for a very high-profile target.
That the LTTE was able to carry out such an audacious attack on the capital
indicates that while it might have been severely crippled by its repeated
losses on the battlefield, and with just a sliver of territory in which to
hide, it has enough remaining strength to deliver Colombo a sizeable blow.
Military losses over the last two years have seen the territory held by the
LTTE shrink from around 15,000 square kilometers to less than 100 square
kilometers. Despite fierce resistance, the past two months have seen the LTTE
lose one strategic town or base after another to the government.
Sri Lankan authorities say that the LTTE is on the brink of defeat in the
26-year-long conflict, and analysts have drawn attention to the collapse of the
LTTE's military infrastructure and the depletion of its military arsenal.
In the course of their advance into LTTE territory, the armed forces claimed to
have captured luxurious bunkers where the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is
said to have lived. But they have found no signs of Prabhakaran. They have said
they had captured all of the LTTE’s runways, but were unclear on the location
of the aircraft.
That changed somewhat with the dramatic air attacks on Colombo on Friday night,
when the world received news about the aircraft and of Prabhakaran. It seems
that while Sri Lanka and the world were speculating on whether the Tigers had
dismantled their aircraft and hidden them abroad boats or in deep jungle for
later use, the Tigers were waiting to strike.
As for Prabhakaran, following the attacks, Tamilnet, a pro-LTTE website carried
a photograph of the two pilots, Colonel Roopan and Lieutenant Colonel
Siriththiran, with the LTTE leader, which were reportedly taken before they
embarked on their mission. The latest reports on Prabhakaran is that he is
alive.
The air attacks on Colombo have been embarrassing for Sri Lankan authorities.
Barely a fortnight ago they claimed that with the capture of all of the LTTE's
runways they had disabled the operational capability of the LTTE's air wing.
But if the government had indeed captured all the runways, then where did the
Tiger aircraft take off from?
"The LTTE may have used a straight road in their last stronghold for taking
off, as the outfit lost all the airstrips to the troops during the past few
months," Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the media. "The troops would
have captured the LTTE planes within days and the LTTE had acted before they
lost the craft on the ground," he said.
Others have speculated over the aircraft taking off from outside Tiger-held
territory in northern Sri Lanka. B Raman, a former director of the Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency, pointed to the
possibility of the aircraft having taken off "from one of the uninhabited
islands in the seas between Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka and the Maldives group"
of islands.
Although the LTTE air strike jolted the Sri Lankan security forces from what
appears to be a premature celebration of victory over the Tigers, Sri Lankan
authorities claim that their shooting down of the two LTTE aircraft on Friday
has destroyed the LTTE's air wing.
"Security forces have put in the last nails [in the coffin] of the LTTE's
rudimentary air capability ... [The] LTTE terrorists are now in all dire
straits and this loss underscores the inevitable defeat of the group, " the
Defense Ministry said in a statement on its website.
But should this claim be believed? If past experience is any indication of what
the LTTE is capable of - it has risen several times from seeming defeat to
spring a surprise or two on its enemies - then the possibility of the Tigers
having a few more surprises cannot be ruled out, despite their ceasefire offer.
The LTTE was believed to be in possession of at least three Czech Zlin-143
light aircraft. Two of these were shot down on Friday, and in September 2008,
the Sri Lankan government claimed to have shot down the aircraft that carried
out the attack on the Vavuniya airbase. This claim that was dismissed by the
LTTE as untrue, however, neither side has followed up their claims with
evidence.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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