it seems that pussies tried to attack katunayake air force base just before 1 am (about two hours ago), probably even using a light aircraft. airport which is nearby was not damaged.
as usual (1, 2, ...) bbc seems to have got the details confused, reporting that airport was attacked. anyway the details are sketchy at the moment so the following may contain errors. attack seems not have caused any major damage to the airbase either (though will have to wait for confirmation here). several explosions were reportedly heard . however though i am in the neighborhood, i did not hear any ( unlike in the 2001 attack when i clearly heard the attack). so they may have been minor. around 20 airmen were reportedly injured (but not too seriously it seems). at the moment security forces are firmly in control and the air port is in operation.
as i said before terrorists will continue to make such desperate attacks. even when they are reduced to a handful they will continue to do so, as similar cowards do in other parts of the world. victory in this war is not defined by the number of attacks but by how many people are controlled through terror. that number is steadily going down in sri lanka and such attacks should not be allowed to disturb that steady progress.
anyway this shows once again why pussies have to be defeated (through a pragmatic way taking in to account the available resources of the country. as we are doing in fact). there is no other option. we certainly should not appease them as peaceniks advocate and thus allow the terrorists to hold a democratic government to ransom through the threats of such attacks.
as usual (1, 2, ...) bbc seems to have got the details confused, reporting that airport was attacked. anyway the details are sketchy at the moment so the following may contain errors. attack seems not have caused any major damage to the airbase either (though will have to wait for confirmation here). several explosions were reportedly heard . however though i am in the neighborhood, i did not hear any ( unlike in the 2001 attack when i clearly heard the attack). so they may have been minor. around 20 airmen were reportedly injured (but not too seriously it seems). at the moment security forces are firmly in control and the air port is in operation.
as i said before terrorists will continue to make such desperate attacks. even when they are reduced to a handful they will continue to do so, as similar cowards do in other parts of the world. victory in this war is not defined by the number of attacks but by how many people are controlled through terror. that number is steadily going down in sri lanka and such attacks should not be allowed to disturb that steady progress.
anyway this shows once again why pussies have to be defeated (through a pragmatic way taking in to account the available resources of the country. as we are doing in fact). there is no other option. we certainly should not appease them as peaceniks advocate and thus allow the terrorists to hold a democratic government to ransom through the threats of such attacks.
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ps
in august last year tiger propaganda made a false claim about an 'aerial' attack on palaly airbase.
in august last year tiger propaganda made a false claim about an 'aerial' attack on palaly airbase.
update/s to 4.30 am.
two bombs were dropped it seems. 2/3 people dead, 17 injured, 4 seriously. but it would be better to wait till things have stabilized to know the exact casualty figures. airport is certainly in operation though several flights were diverted to india initially. no damage to military air craft either.
two bombs were dropped it seems. 2/3 people dead, 17 injured, 4 seriously. but it would be better to wait till things have stabilized to know the exact casualty figures. airport is certainly in operation though several flights were diverted to india initially. no damage to military air craft either.
16 comments:
Tamilnet has said it was done by LTTE airwing by gliders which have returned to the wanni. Some Tamil websites in the UK are saying that this was done to get some credibility amongst the tamil diaspora in order to get more funds as due to the drubbing the lTTE is getting in the east the diaspora are pissed off and not contributing as much. They reckon this was done to show the diaspora that they are still a force to be reckoned with.
What is the Sri Lankan intelligence doing. It was only recently I read a report stating that the air strip in Iranmadu was bombed and can not used. so this comes as a total surprise.
I hope the people that lead will fight to win this war without lining their own pockets at the expense of our youth.
attacks cannot be completely prevented only minimized. it is silly to expect complete stop to attacks. they will continue even if there are only a handful of terrorists. best way to minimize them and the threats is to defeat them and reduce the number of ppl they can control through terror.
i am not sure 'gliders' can come here and go back . it must have been a light aircraft and they really do not need much of runway any road or play ground will do. i was always skeptical about so called iranamadu air strip.
one should always be skeptical about pr from both sides and about 'intelligence' claims. only substantiated facts count in the end.
wars are not won by isolated attacks ( or by pr or intelligence). they all play only minor parts . they are won by actual fighting in the areas that matter.
I didn’t see in BBC anything about attacking Air Port. It is possible I may miss the early reports. But in all early broadcast I watched, they seemed to get it correctly. Not like before, when Luthra was there.
LTTE have done pretty desperate operations. But I cannot categories this as one of them.
We don’t have the world best air force or instruments. I know we cannot afford that. But I guess we have enough capacity to protect an air base – or at least not to let them go back “safely”.
Those Air force boys have good reputation picking fight with civilians boys around Katunayaka area – Specially in musical shows – go back with the platoon and beat them up. But same people let two flights go back safely? (Assuming news is correct)
My personal view is some of our Air force officers should go home leaving their cloth behind. Somebody in air force should take the responsibility –for not been able to protect our Air strip before the attack and most of all after the attack!
It seems quite ridiculous that this plane came all the way to Katunayake unnoticed, attacked the air base and went all the way back to their air base without being noticed, chased or attacked... Pretty poor stuff on the part of the forces... Lots of questions are left completely unanswered... I don't think anyone will bother trying...
The Air Force has to get these things right. There's no point saying you can't prevent all attacks. The high profile attacks MUST be stopped. The propoganda value of this raaid far exeeds the actual damage done. And there's no point saying it's a terrorist war. This was a conventional attack, and the airbase's air defences should have shot the aircraft down -- but the big question is how did the aircraft get that far????? It should never have been allowed NEAR Katu, never mind attack it.
It looks like complacency is once again beginning to set in amongst the members of our Armed Forces - may be a result of the impending victory in the Eastern Province, going by the reports in the media.
Or were our protectors engrossed in the Bangladesh - Bermuda Match ?
Surely, the Airport Control Tower must have the capability of detecting any incoming aircraft?
Were they all boozed up on that Sunday night?
i do agree with most of the comments, air force and intelligence dip. have to be ashamed, all this time they all ware giving confirmation ltte dose not have even light air flight ,now what they had some small shit and came trough all the way to Colombo and came near high secured airport. come on defense heads
This may sound callous, but this is an important lesson learned at a low cost (3 lives and no damage to planes). The possibility of an aerial attack was not given much consideration, and now we know how wrong we were.
The war's going to be over soon.
I have few questions running on my mind,
Q1
If its a strange aircraft, why didnt they notice through Radar.. Nobody can fly like that without permission..
Q2. Why couldnt SLAF follow the aircraft ..they didnt even send a helicopter to Vanni... and folow it and destroy it before they disassemble it.. in this case we cannot find it again till they launch another attack..
What Officials said about this ? I couldnt follow any news lately
I live about 3-4 km distance from the airport. I waked up after the first bomb blast and open the door and come out. Then I heard the second bomb. Then the sound of machine guns and some other heavy weapons. I went to an open space and was watching at the airport. Then 3 lights were flying adjacent to each other. I thought they are mortars or shells or para. But they were disappeared in the air without any sound. They are red color and like big fireworks. I went in again and check the time. It was 12.43 AM. Once I come back I saw another 2 lights. That time they were yellow color. But far apart from each other. The destination of these lights are very near to my home, i.e 3-4 km from the airport and may be 5-6 km from the air force base. I worried whether they are some false targets fired from the enemy crafts. Because they nigher reached the land nor blasted.
So my question is what are they. Any surface to air weapons used by SLAF or false targets fired from the enemy crafts?
however after 1 AM no sounds were there and military announced in the radio that the incident is under controlled. However until today morning when I listen to the news I was not known that was a air attack.
In response to anonymous
Q1. There is nothing strange about this craft. It's an probably ancient Cessna, easily detectible with radar. This being a busy airbase with an airport next door, and no one really anticipating an aerial attack by the tigers, it's likely that the plane was ignored, even if it was detected.
Q2. It was not immediately known that it was an air attack. The plane had probably dropped the bomb from a high altitude and flown away. The only thing known at the time was that there was an explosion at the air base.
Next time we will be well prepared. This attack reminds us that it's important to be constantly alert and to avoid complacency. There was no real damage done.
Like some of the commentators have said the unidentified planes should have shown up on the radar so someone should have been aletred to suspect activity. Heads MUST roll in this for sheer inefficiency. This is certainly not acceptable. AS I said before tamil net said the "planes" went back to the wanni. In addition to that they had a pic of Col Karuna when they broke the story. Please keep this updated people like us overseas access this blog for genuine updates!
I agree, heads must roll. I also think Sri Lanka should commit itself to all out warfare and impose conscription on every able bodied man to join the army or an army reserve for the saftey of the country. Then blunders like this won't occur.
In my view, the Minister of Defence should resign. Airforce heads must roll. Airport Aviation staff must be questioned.
thanks for all the comments. will reply if necessary later. i have posted some thought on this attacks in a new post.
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